I have some experience with illustrator but never tried something like this.
A client recently came to me about photographing their tent. He'd like me to trace out each of the panels and make it essentially a template for dropping in different designs to trial new tent design concepts. I imagine there's a way to do this in illustrator where different panels can be linked images that are interchangeable?
Can you post a sample? This can be done links panel, or swapping symbols, or Effect >> 3D >> Extrude an bevel, and map art to each panel. Depends if you need vector art, bitmapped art, or 3D distortion.