How to Add objects without them hitting each other - actionscript-3

Question

Im doing a test/game and i have bumped in a problem I cant figure out.
I am trying to add Objects (in my case Bricks) to the stage ,but adding in such a way that they never hit one other, and when there is`t any space left on the stage ,to stop adding them and to display lets say "no more space".
The stage is 500x500px and the "block" is 75px to 30px ,but I need this to be able to do the same with other objects with different width and height.
I would be very thankful to an solution for this.:)
The creating of the blocks is done in an AS.
There is a movieClip exported for AS with the name Block
package {
import flash.display.MovieClip;
import flash.events.Event;
public class MainClass extends MovieClip {
private var _blockTime:Number = 0;
private var _blockLimit:Number = 20;
private var Number_:int =0;
private var _blockHolder:MovieClip = new MovieClip();
public function MainClass() {
addEventListener(Event.ENTER_FRAME ,onEveryFrame);
this.addChild(_blockHolder)
}
private function onEveryFrame(ev:Event):void{
makeBlocks();
}
private function makeBlocks():void{
_blockTime++;
if(_blockTime >= _blockLimit){
var _block:Block = new Block();
_block.y = Blocks_YX_Positioning()
_block.x = Blocks_YX_Positioning()
_blockHolder.addChild(_block);
_blockTime = 0;
Number_++
}
}
//code so the block is staing on the stage
private function Blocks_YX_Positioning():int{
var _block_YX:int = Math.random()*500
if (_block_YX < 0 ) {
_block_YX = 50;
}
if (_block_YX > 450 ) {
_block_YX = 450;
}
return _block_YX;
}
}
}

Answer 1

It's as simple as implementing a 2 dimensional Array representing a grid. You don't need any collision detection.
This i how it goes. first you create an Array that represents the grid.
var arrayGrid = [];
// define number of elements in grid
var columns = Math.floor(500 / 70);
var rows = Math.floor(500 / 30);
// create the references: 1,2,3,4 etc.
for( var i = 0; i < columns * rows; i++ ) {
array[i] = i;
}
As you can see, we are putting a number in every element of the array for every element on the imaginary grid. If the grid was 5 x 5, then it would have 25 elements.
Then you make a function like putBrick that puts your bricks in the stage randomly using a number from the array. I'm using 12 as the random number. At the end of the function remove the element of the array we used as a reference. At the start of the function check if the array is empty.
if( arrayGrid.length > 0 ){
var someRandomNumber = 12;
var currentCol = someRandomNumber % columns;
var currentRow = Math.floor(someRandomNumber / columns);
brick.x = currentCol * brick.width;
brick.y = currentRow * brick.height;
array.splice(someRandomNumber,1);
} else {
trace("we are done here!");
}
You will have to tweak a few things, and find the random number, but that's the core logic.