Parallelepiped[p,{v1,…,vk}]
represents a parallelepiped with origin p and directions vi.
Parallelepiped
Parallelepiped[p,{v1,…,vk}]
represents a parallelepiped with origin p and directions vi.
Details and Options
- Parallelepiped is also known as parallelogram, rhombohedron, and parallelotope.
- Parallelepiped represents
, where the vectors vi have to be linearly independent. - Parallelepiped can be used as a geometric region and graphics primitive.
- Parallelepiped can be used in Graphics and Graphics3D.
- In graphics, the point p and vectors vi can be Scaled and Dynamic expressions.
- Graphics rendering is affected by directives such as FaceForm, EdgeForm, Opacity, and color.
Examples
open all close allBasic Examples (3)
A Parallelepiped in 3D:
Graphics3D[Parallelepiped[{0, 0, 0}, {{1, 0, 0}, {1, 1, 0}, {0, 1, 1}}]]Graphics[Parallelepiped[{0, 0}, {{1, 0}, {1, 1}}]]Different styles applied to a parallelepiped:
ℛ = Parallelepiped[{0, 0, 0}, {{1, 0, 0}, {1, 1, 0}, {0, 1, 1}}];{Graphics3D[{Pink, ℛ}], Graphics3D[{EdgeForm[Thick], ℛ}], Graphics3D[{Opacity[0.25], Blue, ℛ}], Graphics3D[{EdgeForm[Directive[Thick, Dotted]], FaceForm[None], ℛ}]}ℛ = Parallelepiped[{0, 0, 0}, {{1, 0, 0}, {1, 1, 0}, {0, 1, 1}}];Volume[ℛ]RegionCentroid[ℛ]Scope (16)
Graphics (6)
Specification (2)
A parallelepiped in
dimensions is specified by a base point and up to
vectors:
Graphics[Parallelepiped[{0, 0}, {{1, 0}, {1, 1}}]]Graphics3D[Parallelepiped[{0, 0, 0}, {{1, 1, 0}, {1, 2, 3}}]]A parallelepiped with specified origin and directions:
p = {0, 0, 0};
{v1, v2, v3} = {{1, 0, 0}, {1, 1, 0}, {0, 1, 1}};ill = {Opacity[1, Black], PointSize[Large], Point[p], Arrowheads[Medium], Thick, Arrow[{p, v1}], Arrow[{p, v2}], Arrow[{p, v3}]};Graphics3D[{Opacity[0.2], Parallelepiped[p, {v1, v2, v3}], ill}, Axes -> True, Boxed -> False]Styling (2)
Color directives specify the face color:
ℛ = Parallelepiped[{0, 0, 0}, {{1, 0, 0}, {1, 1, 0}, {0, 1, 1}}];Table[Graphics3D[{c, ℛ}], {c, {Red, Green, Blue, Yellow}}]FaceForm and EdgeForm can be used to specify the styles of the faces and edges:
Graphics3D[{FaceForm[Pink], EdgeForm[Directive[Thick, Dashed, Blue]], Parallelepiped[{0, 0, 0}, {{1, 0, 0}, {1, 1, 0}, {0, 1, 1}}]}]Coordinates (2)
In 2D and 3D, a parallelepiped can be specified with Scaled coordinates:
Graphics[Parallelepiped[Scaled[{0, 0}], {Scaled[{1 / 2, 0}], Scaled[{1 / 2, 1 / 2}]}], Frame -> True, PlotRange -> {{0, 10}, {0, 10}}]Use Offset coordinates:
Graphics[Parallelepiped[Offset[{10, 10}, {0, 0}], {Offset[{-10, 10}, {1, 0}], Offset[{-10, -10}, {1, 1}]}], Frame -> True]Regions (10)
Embedding dimension is the dimension of the space in which the parallelepiped lives:
ℛ = Parallelepiped[{0, 0, 0}, {{1, 0, 0}, {0, 1, 1}}];RegionEmbeddingDimension[ℛ]Geometric dimension is the dimension of the shape itself:
RegionDimension[ℛ]ℛ = Parallelepiped[{0, 0, 0}, {{1, 0, 0}, {0, 1, 0}, {0, 0, 1}}];{RegionMember[ℛ, {1 / 2, 1 / 2, 1 / 2}], RegionMember[ℛ, {1, 2, 3}]}RegionMember[ℛ, {x, y, z}]ℛ = Parallelepiped[{0, 0, 0}, {{1, 0, 0}, {0, 1, 1}}];RegionMeasure[ℛ]c = RegionCentroid[ℛ]Graphics3D[{{Opacity[0.5], LightBlue, ℛ}, {PointSize[Large], Red, Point[c]}}]ℛ = Parallelepiped[{0, 0}, {{1, 0}, {1, 1}}];RegionDistance[ℛ, {2, 2}]{Plot3D[RegionDistance[ℛ, {x, y}], {x, -1, 3}, {y, -1, 2}, MeshFunctions -> {#3&}, Mesh -> 5], ContourPlot[RegionDistance[ℛ, {x, y}], {x, -2, 4}, {y, -2, 3}, Contours -> {{0.5, Red}, {1, Green}, {1.5, Blue}}]}ℛ = Parallelepiped[{0, 0}, {{1, 0}, {1, 1}}];SignedRegionDistance[ℛ, {1, 1 / 2}]Plot3D[SignedRegionDistance[ℛ, {x, y}], {x, -1, 3}, {y, -1, 2}, MeshFunctions -> {#3&}, Mesh -> {{0}}, MeshShading -> {Red, Green}]ℛ = Parallelepiped[{0, 0, 0}, {{1, 0, 0}, {1, 1, 0}, {0, 1, 1}}];RegionNearest[ℛ, {2, 2, 2}]pts = Flatten[Table[RegionCentroid[ℛ] + 2{Cos[k 2 π / 8]Cos[j 2 π / 8], Sin[k 2 π / 8]Cos[j 2 π / 8], Sin[j 2 π / 8]}, {k, 0, 7}, {j, -3, 3}], 1];
nst = RegionNearest[ℛ, #]& /@ pts;Legended[Graphics3D[{{Opacity[0.5], Gray, ℛ}, {Thin, Gray, Line[Transpose[{pts, nst}]]}, {Red, Point[pts]}, {Blue, Point[nst]}}], PointLegend[{Red, Blue}, {"start", "nearest"}]]ℛ = Parallelepiped[{0, 0, 0, 0}, {{1, 0, 0, 0}, {1, 1, 0, 0}, {0, 1, 1, 0}, {0, 0, 1, 1}}];BoundedRegionQ[ℛ]Compute a bounding box for the region:
RegionBounds[ℛ]Integrate over a Parallelepiped:
ℛ = Parallelepiped[{0, 0, 0}, {{1, 0, 0}, {1, 1, 0}, {0, 1, 1}}];Integrate[1, {x, y, z}∈ℛ]Integrate[x y z, {x, y, z}∈ℛ]ℛ = Parallelepiped[{0, 0, 0}, {{1, 0, 0}, {1, 1, 0}, {0, 1, 1}}];Minimize[{(x - 1)^2(2y - 1)^2(3z - 1)^2 + 1, {x, y, z}∈ℛ}, {x, y, z}]Solve equations over a Parallelepiped:
ℛ = Parallelepiped[{0, 0}, {{1, 0}, {1, 1}}];Reduce[x^2 + y^2 == 1 && {x, y}∈ℛ, {x, y}]Applications (3)
For a full-dimensional Parallelepiped, the measure is easily computed from the vectors:
v = {v1, v2} = {{1, 1}, {1, 3}};Area[Parallelepiped[{p1, p2}, v]]The volume is equal to the absolute value of the determinant of the matrix
:
Abs[Det[v]]For a lower-dimensional Parallelepiped, the square root of the Gram determinant is used:
v = {v1, v2} = {{1, 1, 1}, {2, 3, 4}};Area[Parallelepiped[{p1, p2, p3}, v]]The Gram determinant is the determinant of
dotted with its Transpose:
Sqrt[Abs[Det[v.Transpose[v]]]]Any full-dimensional Parallelepiped can tile space:
Graphics[{EdgeForm[Gray], FaceForm[LightBlue], Table[Parallelepiped[{1, 0}i + {1, 1}j, {{1, 0}, {1, 1}}], {i, 1, 5}, {j, 1, 5}]}]Graphics3D[{EdgeForm[Directive[Thin, Gray]], FaceForm[Opacity[0.3]], Table[Parallelepiped[{1, 0, 0}i + {1, 1, 0}j + {0, 1, 1}k, {{1, 0, 0}, {1, 1, 0}, {0, 1, 1}}], {i, 1, 5}, {j, 1, 5}, {k, 1, 5}]}]Properties & Relations (5)
Parallelogram is the 2D full-dimensional case of Parallelepiped:
Subscript[ℛ, 1] = Parallelogram[{1, 2}, {{3, 4}, {5, 6}}];Subscript[ℛ, 2] = Parallelepiped[{1, 2}, {{3, 4}, {5, 6}}];RegionEqual[Subscript[ℛ, 1], Subscript[ℛ, 2]]Rectangle is a 2D Parallelepiped with axis-aligned edges:
Subscript[ℛ, 1] = Rectangle[{1, 2}, {3, 5}];Subscript[ℛ, 2] = Parallelepiped[{1, 2}, {{2, 0}, {0, 3}}];RegionEqual[Subscript[ℛ, 1], Subscript[ℛ, 2]]Cuboid is a 3D Parallelepiped with axis-aligned edges:
Subscript[ℛ, 1] = Cuboid[{1, 2, 3}, {4, 4, 8}];Subscript[ℛ, 2] = Parallelepiped[{1, 2, 3}, {{3, 0, 0}, {0, 2, 0}, {0, 0, 5}}];RegionEqual[Subscript[ℛ, 1], Subscript[ℛ, 2]]Any Parallelepiped is an AffineTransform of a Cuboid:
p = {1, 2, 3};
{v1, v2, v3} = {{1, 0, 0}, {1, 2, 0}, {0, 3, 4}};Subscript[ℛ, 1] = Parallelepiped[p, {v1, v2, v3}];
Subscript[ℛ, 2] = TransformedRegion[Cuboid[], AffineTransform[{{v1, v2, v3}, p}]];RegionEqual[Subscript[ℛ, 1], Subscript[ℛ, 2]]Hexahedron is a generalization of a 3D Parallelepiped:
p = {1, 2, 3};
{v1, v2, v3} = {{1, 0, 0}, {1, 1, 0}, {0, 1, 1}};Subscript[ℛ, 1] = Parallelepiped[p, {v1, v2, v3}];
Subscript[ℛ, 2] = Hexahedron[{p, p + v1, p + v1 + v2, p + v2, p + v3, p + v3 + v1, p + v3 + v1 + v2, p + v3 + v2}];RegionEqual[Subscript[ℛ, 1], Subscript[ℛ, 2]]Related Guides
History
Text
Wolfram Research (2014), Parallelepiped, Wolfram Language function, https://reference.wolfram.com/language/ref/Parallelepiped.html.
CMS
Wolfram Language. 2014. "Parallelepiped." Wolfram Language & System Documentation Center. Wolfram Research. https://reference.wolfram.com/language/ref/Parallelepiped.html.
APA
Wolfram Language. (2014). Parallelepiped. Wolfram Language & System Documentation Center. Retrieved from https://reference.wolfram.com/language/ref/Parallelepiped.html
BibTeX
@misc{reference.wolfram_2026_parallelepiped, author="Wolfram Research", title="{Parallelepiped}", year="2014", howpublished="\url{https://reference.wolfram.com/language/ref/Parallelepiped.html}", note=[Accessed: 12-June-2026]}
BibLaTeX
@online{reference.wolfram_2026_parallelepiped, organization={Wolfram Research}, title={Parallelepiped}, year={2014}, url={https://reference.wolfram.com/language/ref/Parallelepiped.html}, note=[Accessed: 12-June-2026]}