design interface to manipulate maya object
 

hello everyone. i'm new here and i'm somewhat of an amateur in using maya. i haven't worked on maya that much but i do enjoy it a lot. the reason i'm posting this thread is because i have some queries about this project i am working on. i want to create an interface design that allows the user to manipulate (e.g zoom in, zoom out) objects created in maya. i researched a bit and found that maya API is available for visual c++. but what i can't figure out is if that'll work...or can it be done through MEL?
any information regarding this would be greatly appreciated

An interface?

If you just want to zoom in/zoom out, export the object as an obj, and write an importer in your interface application.