AX2012 with a 3rd Party Product Configurator

Has anyone integrated AX2012 with a 3rd party product configurator? We have decided to not use the standard AX Product Builder, and I am now trying to get the basic concepts clear before an interface is developed.

Various questions: are there any user guides / technical papers out there? Anything related to creating a configured sales order line and the creation of a matching works order would be ideal. The product configurator will create the component list (from which a BoM can be created), and likewise the detail for a Route. I am expecting a unique Config Id to be the link between AX and the configurator.

When I create a new Product Master, there are four options for Configuration Technology (pre-defined variant; dimension-based configuration; rule-based configuration; constraint-based configuration). I think that the last two would be applicable to an external configurator. Does this sound right?

Any illumination would be gratefully received.