title: Data structure for fast line queries?
body: <p>I know that I can use a KD-Tree to store points and iterate quickly over a fraction of them that are close to another given point. I'm wondering whether there is something similar for lines.</p>
  
  <p>Given a set of lines L in <strong>3D</strong> (to be stored in that data structure) and another "query line" q, I'd like to be able to quickly iterate through all lines in L that "are close enough" to q. The distance I'm planning to use is the minimal Euclidean distance between two points u and v where u is some point on the first line and v is some point on the second line. Computing that distance is not a problem (there's a nice trick involving the cross product).</p>
  
  <p>Maybe you guys have a good idea or know where to look for papers, descriptions, etc...</p>
  
  <p>TIA,
  s.</p>