[vtkusers] vtkTransform::GetOrientation()

[Michael Halle]

George,

This isn't a vtk issue.  That's just the way 3D rotations work.  You
decomposed your matrix into three rotation matrices, but order is
important.  The reason is that in general, sequential rotation around
any two orthogonal axes produces an effective rotation around the
third axis.  I'm not going to do the math, but it would not surprise
me to find that:

R_y(10)R_x(20)R_z(30) = R_x(20.3)R_y(9.39)R_z(33.4)


							--Mike
George Kamucha wrote a second time:

> ...

> vtkTransform *trans = vtkTransform::New();
>             trans->Identity();
>             trans->PostMultiply();
>             trans->RotateY(10);
>             trans->RotateX(20);
>             trans->RotateZ(30);
>             trans->GetOrientation();


> I was expecting the output to be just three elements (so I have read
> from the Manpages!), but I instead got a matrix which after decomposing
> ( a lot of work!), gave seemingly the following: Y=9.39, X=20.3 and
> Z=33.4. So I am wondering, how come I am not getting the three angles as
> opposed to a matrix, and is the error usually this big?. Please assist.