Felix,

I am maybe a hair further along than you..but not much. Same deal I want to make carving patterns. Here are some screen shots of a model I made a while back for a carving. I also love Moi and had the same idea you have of creating the base in Moi and then sculpting. Issue is just like you said..all quads. Some things I have taken out of MOI into zbrush with very high poly count turn off smooth in zbrush when subdividing and have had minimal issues. I bought 3d coat soley for the retopo feature..added bonus it has some very cool tools zbrush doesnt...so between the two programs it has everything..the rest is up to me.

When I bought Moi I couldn't tell you the difference between poly's and nurbs..had a lot to learn. All I knew was I could "draw" my shapes which seemed a hell of a lot easier than than all the modelling programs for polys..it looked really hard just to set an image up for a reference. Just like the depth map road I tried everything..even bought vector majic for auto trace then bring into moi as pdf and extrude. Finally the light bulbs went off I was trying to make Moi do something it's not intended to do. Man did I spend a lot of time trying..lol looking back I wish spent the time learning poly modelling. I tried everything I could to avoid it.

The screenshots below of the old man model are my moi to sculpt method..lol. I am sure the folks on here that understand poly modelling are damn thats a lot of work..why not just model in quads from the get go. But I know where your coming from...it seems like a way higher learning curve than Moi. I finanlly bit the bullet and started learning quads. I will always use moi for a lot of stuff. I made like 50 sign blank patterns that I sell and made them all in MOI...they were so fast to make..for me WAY faster than poly modelling. But they were sign shapes with decorative edges..ie router profiles. My advice find a package you like poly wise and start really simple..and at first forget the cnc pattern thing in the begining. Reason you will not find much info on making those kind of model tutorial wise and it does get to be a challenge to keep everything in 2.5d. I started making like really simple things like pumpkins soccer balls blocked-out human body mesh (very basic) and started grasping the concepts - edge flow, where to add rings etc. Then apply to pattern you want to make once you get the concepts. I know you don't like silo...that was the one I liked for the simplicity. I demo'd 3ds max and hated it..too much for me..I didn't care about rendering and even less about animation..just wanted cnc patterns. Other cheap and simple modellor to check out is ac3d..was 79 bucks..not sure now. It is very basic..I stopped in it and went on to silo for the added features but it was nice to start with.

To get to where you want to go with cnc patterns you can't really avoid quads. I attached a model I made of woody wood pecker...I couldn't begin to figure out how to make him in Moi..and trust me I tried. Once I got the basics down of poly's he was actually pretty fast to make. Other thing I am finding out as I go..the better I get with poly modelling the less sculpting I am doing..my new goal. Except to add texture etc for carviongs like hair fur etc. I attached the oldman 3dm so you can play around with exporting and sculpting.

Good Luck