Thread: overloaded << operator doesnt work

I have a problem printing to a file, this is the main code:

Code:

//debuggin' code
	for( i = 0; i < polys.size( ); i++ )
	{
		fileOut << "POLYGON " << i << " :" << endl;
		fileOut << "Normal : " << *polys[ i ].getNormal( ) << endl;		//no operator << defined??
//		cout << "Normal : " << *polys[ i ].getNormal( ) << endl;			//prints to screen as expected

		for( int j = 0; j < polys[ i ].getCornerCount( ); j++ )
		{
			Vector3d temp( polys[ i ].getPoint( j ) );
//			fileOut << temp << endl;
		}
		fileOut << endl << endl;
	}

and this is the overloaded << operator:

Code:

ostream& operator << ( ostream& os, const Vector3d&a )
{
	os << "( " << a.triple[ 0 ] << " , " << a.triple[ 1 ] << " , " << a.triple[ 2 ] << " )";
	return os;
}

The getNormal(...) function returns a pointer which can be dereferenced and printed to the screen but not to file. Why is this?? The other commented out line "fileOut << temp << endl;" should also work in the same way but doesn't. Is it the overloaded operator or something else?