Used / remaining space

After packing it is possible to see how much physical space in each PackedBox is taken up with items, and how much space was unused (air). This information might be useful to determine whether it would be useful to source alternative/additional sizes of box.

At a high level, the getVolumeUtilisation() method exists which calculates how full the box is as a percentage of volume.

Lower-level methods are also available for examining this data in detail either using getUsed[Width|Length|Depth()] (a hypothetical box placed around the items) or getRemaining[Width|Length|Depth()] (the difference between the dimensions of the actual box and the hypothetical box).

Note

BoxPacker will try to pack items into the smallest box available

Example - warning on a massively oversized box

<?php

    // assuming packing already took place
    foreach ($packedBoxes as $packedBox) {
        if ($packedBox->getVolumeUtilisation() < 20) {
            // box is 80% air, log a warning
        }
    }