That's great. I wanted to find a program which would work for now, while I work on the plugin. Looks like I found it. If I find a link to deluxe paint, I will post that too (it's abandonware now).
The Plugin SDK has sample code for an import/export plugin called "simple format" so I think I will have most of the structure in place to snap my code into (when and IF I can write it.) That makes the learning curve a little slimmer, which gives me a bit more confidence...wish me luck. In the meantime, I will be looking into unit costs and training seasons (What's the consensus on this? Would it be considered cheating?) Expect the answers to that puzzle within the week.
The BIF format...ick...looks pretty ugly. I'll take a long hard look at them and see if I can get a bulb burning. Does anyone already know some parts of it to give me a head-start?
I looked at some of the files that I thought were 3D models. I have some pretty good thoughts on those, but I will save them until I research it better (I hate looking like a fool )

Scott McDonnell