>> Unfortunately there is no easy way to do this, as they will be expecting 
>> a
>> triangle mesh.  There are macros for POV lying around that will convert 
>> your
>> CSG into a mesh, you might then want to import into a mesh modeller to 
>> check
>> and tidy up any items.
>
> Any specific macros you'd recommend? Links?

I've never personally used any, but I remember seeing references somewhere 
on this forum.

> POV-Ray is the only 3D modeller I've taught myself how to use.  I tend to 
> think
> in terms of CSG; intersections, unions, differences, of spheres, cones, 
> planes,
> boxes, etc.  Any modellers that would be easy to learn how to use that 
> would
> allow me to work in the same terms but which would create a triangle mesh?

Pretty much any 3D CAD software would fit the bill perfectly, but...

> Any
> that are free?

...they tend not to be free.  I'm not sure how well the likes of Blender 
handle CSG, but you could give it a shot, and it's not very parametric, so 
you can't easily go back and change the radius of stuff after you've made 
the model (like you can in POV and CAD software).

Another idea I had: When they receive a 3D mesh they must render it to a 
load of 2D bitmap slices at some point to feed to the machine.  I wonder if 
you contacted them, you could supply them with a load of monochrome bitmaps 
for each slice instead of the 3D data.  This would be easy to render in one 
go with POV.

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