[Swftools-common] Laser Engraving

[Jymmm]

Ok folks, bear with me here...

GOAL:
Be able to create a SWF that will allow clients to WYSIWYG design their own
items to be custom engraved.


OBJECTIVE:
The resulting output from the SWF would either:
1) generate a vector/raster file that can be imported to the laser engraver.
-or-
2) create enough data for a backend script to generate a vector/raster file.


BACKGROUND:
In the engraving industry, CorelDraw (cdr) is the defacto stadard, and once
in a while AutoCAD (dwf, dwg) in tossed in there as well.

Corel "can" import/use SVG (among other graphics formats), but if someone
wants a logo added, now we have a raster image in there to boot, but that's
not 100% supported correctly in SVG.


THE FUN PART (yeah, right):
Ok, I'm not sure of SWF specs can do this or not, nor am I aware of any
common graphic format that can handle BOTH vector AND raster graphics at the
same time.


What I'm basically asking here is this:
1) Does this project seem doable from SWF and/or SWFTools standpoint?
2) Is there anything I haven't covered here I should consider?


Having a WYSIWYG editor for clients to see a proof ahead of time as well as
being able to directly import to a laser engraver would be a valuable tool as
well as a HUGE time saver.

Having to learn things along the the development process is fine, but it has
to be rock solid. Meaning that I can't have some flacky graphics format, or
have it generate 30 layered lines on top of each other from a user's editing
as this could cause a fire or destroy a product if they were to submit a $400
urn for engraving as example.

Of course, the engraver operator would still be checking each one by hand,
but there's always that human factor to consider as well. We ain't perfect =)

Other thoughts or feedback are appreciated.

Jim...


                
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