Hey Donald, I don’t know if you got a satisfactory answer to your question but at least you did spark quite an interesting dispute between heavyweights.
You might want to check Andrew Kramer’s tutorial series on creating a 3d crater. It’s done in AFX and 3dsmax but the principles are the same in any 3d app. https://www.videocopilot.net/tutorials/3d_crater_p1/
Judging by the description of your project you might be surprised of how these tuts approach pretty much what you’re aiming at.
You might want to check out Boris Continuum’s plugins. There’s one in particular, BCC5 Led wich might be decently suitable for such purposes… if you’re willing to make the investment that is.