... planning a simple coordinate system, where objects are described
as x, y and z. Are there any contribs or extensions available that can help me with datatypes, calculation of length between two points, etc?
google postgis. It is for geographic stuff, so maybe overkill, but maybe not. There are are also geometry types native to Postgres that you can find in the docs
-- regards, Robin ---------------------------(end of broadcast)--------------------------- TIP 6: explain analyze is your friend
---------------------------(end of broadcast)--------------------------- TIP 9: In versions below 8.0, the planner will ignore your desire to choose an index scan if your joining column's datatypes do not match