Wing Commander CIC

I looked at SO's capship meshes, and noticed that there's a mesh for the main hull, and then more meshes for each component and their destroyed versions... however, I'm still not sure how to make capships for WCP/SO. First, what's this whole TREE deal? I don't understand what it is, and (as a consequence, perhaps ) I can't get it to work. And second, how do I glue all the components together? Does each of them need a TREE, and a mesh script? How does it work?

TIA,
--Eder