Perpendicular on a line segment from a given point

Question

I want to calculate a point on a given line that is perpendicular from a given point.

I have a line segment AB and have a point C outside line segment. I want to ca

Answer 1

There is a simple closed form solution for this (requiring no loops or approximations) using the vector dot product.

Imagine your points as vectors where point A is at the origin (0,0) and all other points are referenced from it (you can easily transform your points to this reference frame by subtracting point A from every point).

In this reference frame point D is simply the vector projection of point C on the vector B which is expressed as:

// Per wikipedia this is more efficient than the standard (A . Bhat) * Bhat
Vector projection = Vector.DotProduct(A, B) / Vector.DotProduct(B, B) * B

The result vector can be transformed back to the original coordinate system by adding point A to it.