3D Coordinates and Vector3s

The big idea

To say exactly where something is in a room, you need three numbers. Think of the corner of a room where two walls meet the floor. From that corner you can measure:

  • how far right you go (call it X),
  • how far up you go (call it Y),
  • how far forward you go (call it Z).

Those three numbers together — like (0.30, 1.20, -1.00) — pin down one exact spot. A trio like that is called a Vector3 ("vector of three"). One number places you on a line, two on a flat sheet, three anywhere in a room.

How Cattail.Nu SpaceCube uses them

In Cattail.Nu SpaceCube the three numbers are always in this order: X, Y, Z.

  • X — left/right. Positive X is to the right.
  • Y — down/up. Positive Y is up. Higher cube, bigger Y.
  • Z — forward/back. Forward, away from you, is negative Z, so a cube farther out in front has a more negative Z.

Distances are stored in meters, then shown in whatever unit fits. A cube window's "Location" row is a Vector3: three numbers for where the cube's center sits.

Two kinds of Vector3 on the panels

A Vector3 can mean two different things, and the app uses both:

  1. A position — an address in space. "The cube is at (0.30, 1.20, -1.00)."
  2. A separation — how far apart two things are, one axis at a time. The measurement window's Axis Breakdown is a separation: how far apart two cubes are in X, in Y, and in Z. If the Y value is large, one cube is much higher than the other.

A quick example

Say cube A is at (0, 1, -1) and cube B is at (0, 1, -2).

  • They are the same left/right (X is 0 for both).
  • They are the same height (Y is 1 for both).
  • B is one meter farther out front (Z goes from -1 to -2).

So their separation is one meter, all in Z. The straight‑line distance the app prints would be 1.000 m.

Where you see this

  • Every cube window's Location row.
  • The measurement window's Axis Breakdown table.
  • The TXT export, which lists each location in meters, centimeters, feet, and inches.

Related reading: Concept - World Space, Concept - Local Space, Concept - Pivot Point.