Flash Player 11 adds new methods of the Matrix3D class to copy elements
Flash Player 11 and AIR 3.0 adds new methods of the Matrix3D class to copy elements between a Matrix3D object and Matrix3D, Vector3D or Vector objects. A Matrix3D object represents a square matrix of order 4 to transform coordinates in 3D.[*1]
A Matrix3D object represents a square matrix of order 4.
The four methods in the table below copy elements of a row or column between the referenced Matrix3D ooject and the Vector3D object of its argument.
| Target | Method of Matrix3D class | Direction |
| Column | copyColumnFrom() | Vector3D -> Matrix3D |
| copyColumnTo() | Matrix3D -> Vector3D | |
| Row | copyRowFrom() | Vector3D -> Matrix3D |
| copyRowTo() | Matrix3D -> Vector3D |
Matrix3D.rawData property reads or writes 16 elements of a Matrix3D object, which are stored in a Vector object with Number base type. The two methods in the table below can copy all 16 elements between the referenced Matrix3D object and the Vector object of its argument. A Vector object of the Matrix3D.rawData property stores elements of a matrix column-by-column.[*2]
| Method of Matrix3D class | Direction |
| copyRawDataFrom() | Vector -> Matrix3D |
| copyRawDataTo() | Matrix3D -> Vector |
The Matrix3D.copyFrom() method copies elements between the referenced Matrix3D object and the other one of it argument. It does not create new Matrix3D object unlike the Matrix3D.clone() method. As it can use existing Matrix3D object, it consume less memory and can avoid the garbage collection.
[*1] [Matrix3D] of the [Help] shows the figure below with the following description:
The Matrix3D class uses a 4×4 square matrix: a table of four rows and columns of numbers that hold the data for the transformation. The first three rows of the matrix hold data for each 3D axis (x,y,z). The translation information is in the last column. The orientation and scaling data are in the first three columns. The scaling factors are the diagonal numbers in the first three columns. Here is a representation of Matrix3D elements:
But the positions of “x-axis”, “y-axis” and “z-axis” are not match to the statement that “The first three rows of the matrix hold data for each 3D axis (x,y,z)”. Therefore, the figure inserted in the body text is modified to place them to the correct positions.
[*2] The [Help] describes a Vector object of the Matrix3D.rawData as follows:
A Vector of 16 Numbers, where every four elements can be a row or a column of a 4×4 matrix.
However every four elements is a COLUMN of a 4×4 matrix as described in the body text.
