[Bf-docboard] Image generation idea.

[will]

Greetings,

I am not sure if this has been discussed before so please pardon if so.

Recently S68 clued me in that thumbnail images are scaled on the fly by 
the server. This started me thinking about some work I was doing 
recently on the Curves section of the Manual/PartII. It dawned on me 
that the "Curve and Surface" panel provides functionality for severals 
tools; and of course we know that already;-). For example, Tapering and 
Extruding.

So I thought wouldn't it be helpful if we could show the "Curves and 
Surface" panel only once but with different markups (ex. yellow boxes 
that highlight) in hopes of avoiding having the same panel shown 
multiple times with different markups. Say perhaps have one markup image 
that highlights the BevOb field and another that highlights the TaperOb 
field etc....

I was wondering if it would be feasible if we could have overlay markup 
images that could be applied to a corresponding underlying image on the 
fly? Perhaps have a new Template that drives this new feature.

I thought of several approaches:

1) The server could merge N transparent/alpha markup layers on top of a 
background image. Each markup image would be applied using the same tool 
that is scaling images.
2) The browser could apply SVG to an image.
3) The server could apply SVG markup language prior to sending to browser.

Option #1 is possible if a server tool exists that can composite images 
on the fly as does the thumbnail template.
Option #2 is not feasable because not all browsers support SVG
Option #3 is possible if a server could composite and apply SVG and send 
a static results to the browser.

I was thinking of something along the lines:

[[Image:Reference-PanelX.png|ImageOvly:markup1.png|ImageOvly:markup2.png|frame|right|PanelX 
example.]]


Does anyone have any comments and is there anyone that could implement 
such as feature/template?

-Will (Quartz)