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Studio projects, or gcc make files, that will do the actual build (and hence
isn't essential for the build step).
Can anyone give an example of either generating a VS project, or send me a
copy of a pre-generated project that I might look at and/or use?
If I have the Project (or gcc make file) as my starting point do I still
need cmake?

I've looked at the example http://www.vtk.org/Wiki/VTK/VTKMatlab
It indicates that within VTK a shared library has a dot.a extension.
Why is that?  Why not a standard dot.lib extension?

If I try to make the mex file from the above example I get a compiler
message about vtkConfigure.h not beng found.
There is a vtkConfigure.h.in
What is the dot.in extension for?
If I (mindlessly) change this to a standard dot.h file (is that sensible?)
then I get errors related to not knowing what to do with #cmakedefine.
Which gets me back to wondering if cmake is essential.

Any tips for a beginner would be appreciated.

Phil.