* Web Engine v2 from Virtual Machines
I had high hopes for Scalable Vector Graphics but for some reason this standard for rendering complex graphical objects doesn’t have the traction that it might have had.
The reason may have been that SVG solves problems that matter to Web designers and engineers but not to Web users – the existing graphics standards and Macromedia’s Flash may well satisfy the majority of market demands. That said, in engineering applications, particularly in intranets, SVG can be a tremendous tool for productivity.
Web Engine v2, a new tool currently in public beta release, is from Virtual Mechanics and supports the creation of Web content in both HTML and DHTML, and also provides extensive support for output in SVG format.
Web Engine provides an integrated development environment (IDE) with drag-and-drop visual authoring and supports all the basic graphic editing tools such as polygons, pies, paths, splines and extrusions. It also includes a word processor-style rich text editor with automatic conversion to HTML or SVG, filters, spell checker and a dynamic link editor.
Web Engine’s graphics rendering produces “comparable quality rendered graphics in both HTML and SVG” for radial and linear shading, transparency and transparency mapping, anti-aliasing, color enhancement, and thumbnail generation of loaded bitmap graphics.
Page layout features include snap-to grid and tabs, pixel precision positioning, and relative positioning as well as interactive rotation, stretching, skewing and moving of most graphic elements including loaded bitmaps. Animation support includes key-frame animation, motion paths and color and for SVG only, transparency animation, while the advanced behavior editor allows precise control of animation and user interaction.
This is a powerful development tool that shows a lot of promise particularly for technical environments.
