# Rods in confinement ### Characterizing rod packings 1) Local nematic order parameter. See for example the definition in the SI of this paper: https://doi.org/10.1039/C6SM02162J Note that the surface-to-surface distance is already calculated in your overlap function. 2) Distribution of orientations plotted on the surface of a sphere. For example, in this paper: https://pubs.acs.org/doi/pdf/10.1021/nn507490j?casa_token=q6RoAOG6tD4AAAAA:r0aO3JU3SEbh8LiJ2U33-u2pHgNM6sM7qhyEm-d5T66l5aUnrqV_cu_kbTi3p4AA4NOs3JkgVod9gx4 they plot orientations of bonds between neighbors in this way (e.g. Fig. 3). In your case, instead of bonds orientations you would plot particle orientations, but the principle is the same. 3) Histogram of angles within the xy plane (0 to 180 degrees, e.g. with the x-axis).