Making my own CAELinux?

Hello everybody:

I've been using CAELinux 2008 since some months now. I cannot use the 2009 version becasue I have a 32bit system, and the thing is that I would like to have an upgraded system, meaning with it that the base OS is up to date. I cannot update through synaptic nor simialr means because the dependencies of many of the included software makes them unusable, just chanign the tcl libraries is a headache.
So my idea is installing TinyMe 2010 or Unity RC1 and start adding all the software that comes by default in CAELinux (I like very much Mandriva based distros, specially these ones that are so lightweight). Unity also has a 64bit version, so it might be nice to build from there too if I get a more modern machine. Well, my question is if it's just like that, downloading the software through repositories or official sites and installing them. I mean, do the CAELinux distros have some extra coding not included by default in the softwares packages that adds certain functionalities, like integration between differnt programs or something like that? In the Wiki there's somehting mentioned but I don't understand it very well. In case there are these extra scripts, are they really necessary? I'm about to get my degree on Aeronautical Engineering and I use mostly CAD/Meshing software, number crunching aps like Octave and Maxima, CFD and occasionally structural analisys FEM. I suppose Gmesh, Salome, Aster, Saturne, Calculix and OpenFoam would suffice for a start.
Do you have any reccomendations to start? Thank you in advance.

César

Yes, that's what I've read and couldn't understand in the beggining... well magically now I think I understand. So basically the only extra package (not availbable outside this distro) I need to fully "caelinux-ize" any distro is that "helpers" tarball that is available for download in the wiki?.
Well, if it's only that I think I will have a nice time playing until I make it work, lol. I haven't been able to compile OpenCascade properly, I want it to run FreeCad or HeeksCad (Wine simply refuses to be useful for engineering stuff like Dassault products...). Or better, since I'm here, can you reccomend me a good freeware CAD that can handle Step and Iges? So far I have tried gCAD3D, BRL and VariCad (not free, but had a trial). The two first (specially BRL) are not very user friendly, and Varicad is inbetween AutoCad and Rhino but with some compatibility problems.
BTW, thank you for the quickie helpful reply.