Cutting a totem Pole

Fred mentioned a project close to my heart, making a totem pole (well
actually sculpting in general). As an exercise, assuming you had a 5
axis mill (x,y,z) plus a tilting rotary table (a,b):
1. What would you use as a CAD output format (STL, IGES, DXF...)? The
choice of actual CAD program is dependent on the specific model you
are trying to build and your preferences.
2. What CAM packages would you use? I've looked at Mastercam and am
not real sure it could handle imported 5 axis nurb generated surfaces
in any format. Could be wrong.
3. What would you use for a post processor? I haven't been able to
find any 5 axis posts, even examples.
4. If you got the post to work would any of the PC controllers
actaully cut it if performance isn't a concern?

Roger