JTS: split arbitrary polygon by a line

Question

I just discovered JTS through this stack exchange. I'm looking for a Java solution to cut an abitrary polygon into two by a line. I've implemented one that does fine on convex polygons, but it messes up on concave ones.

Can anyone give an example on how to use JTS to cut a convex polygon by a line segment? I know that sometimes you can end up with more than two polygons depending on the shape.

Answer 1

I finally found an answer to this hidden away in a tutorial on WPS processes.

There isn't much explanation! But it seems to work.

public class PolygonTools {

  public static Geometry polygonize(Geometry geometry) {
      List lines = LineStringExtracter.getLines(geometry);
      Polygonizer polygonizer = new Polygonizer();
      polygonizer.add(lines);
      Collection polys = polygonizer.getPolygons();
      Polygon[] polyArray = GeometryFactory.toPolygonArray(polys);
      return geometry.getFactory().createGeometryCollection(polyArray);
  }

  public static Geometry splitPolygon(Geometry poly, Geometry line) {
      Geometry nodedLinework = poly.getBoundary().union(line);
      Geometry polys = polygonize(nodedLinework);

      // Only keep polygons which are inside the input
      List output = new ArrayList();
      for (int i = 0; i < polys.getNumGeometries(); i++) {
          Polygon candpoly = (Polygon) polys.getGeometryN(i);
          if (poly.contains(candpoly.getInteriorPoint())) {
              output.add(candpoly);
          }
      }
      return poly.getFactory().createGeometryCollection(GeometryFactory.toGeometryArray(output));
  }
}