It sounds like a good idea, but you need to be careful with your terminology. Used alone, the term "zip" is generally interpreted to mean a PKZIP compatible multi-file archive (with .zip extension), and nothing else.
I personally agree that using zlib to create a gzip-compatible file is a good route to take, and would probably add support for this to a future LDView version if it became at all popular. However, if you go this route, make sure that the files you produce are actual gzip files (with valid gzip header at the beginning, plus checksum and uncompressed size at the end). The zlib library contains sample code for creating .zip files, but I don't feel these would be a good idea.
I personally agree that using zlib to create a gzip-compatible file is a good route to take, and would probably add support for this to a future LDView version if it became at all popular. However, if you go this route, make sure that the files you produce are actual gzip files (with valid gzip header at the beginning, plus checksum and uncompressed size at the end). The zlib library contains sample code for creating .zip files, but I don't feel these would be a good idea.