<UPDATE 20/09>
The approach I'm going with is plot half my shapes (I'm using circles now, I can put squares inside them later on) onto a circle, project them out to make half a sphere, repeat for the other half.

Well, I just now finished a way to plot my shapes into a circle, using the smallest area possible. It doesn't make a perfect circle, but that's even better IMO. But, I get 40% CPU usage on my quad core.

Live demo:[link]
Source:[link]

</UPDATE 20/09>




The steps I wanna do:

Say I have n squares (or circles if its easier)
 of a set size (x radius for circles, or x*x squares)

Find the size/radius of a sphere large enough to have the n squares plotted on its surface without overlapping

Plot those points


I think I have the math down for calculating the size, but what's the best way to go about plotting the centers of squares? Links to references or whatever much appreciated, google is failing me.


UPDATE
Thanks for input guys, what do you think about this idea, is it do-able?

What if I take half the squares/circles, and fill a circle with them. Then project these points out so I have half a sphere. Repeat for the other half of my squares, rotate it 180, and I have a full sphere?

I'll start on this later, right now I need to go get some grocerys, mow the lawn, and finish the washing. Fun fun fun.

ANOTHER UPDATE
IDEA NUMBER 2
Somehow on the fly create a 3d-psuedomodel with n faces. The faces don't need to be any specific shape, because I would just need the center of each face, and maybe their rotation. Hmm. What do I google to find this?