MCX and InstaDMG

I'm fairly new to both InstaDMG and local MCX, so please forgive my lack of knowledge here... Historically I've built images on a Mac Pro making extensive use of 'defaults' and PlistBuddy. Thus, this new method is taking some adjustment... My question is this: Is the only way to configure local MCX via InstaDMG to use CLI/scripts with 'dscl'? This isn't a problem per se, but I would then need to determine the correct syntax/command for every change I want to make. Is there a way to configure a machine using Workgroup Manager and essentially apply a pre-configured file or template? In other words, instead of writing a script with every mcx/dscl command, doing some sort of "export" and applying it to the build? I've created the initial "localhost" package that creates the computer record, but before I start deciphering all of the plist and dscl configurations, I thought I'd check to see if there is an easier way. Finally, if this can only be done via dscl in a script, I was hoping to find some commonly used commands, like changing the options in the Security pane in System Preferences.