Copy User Data from one light to another?

At the moment I reference a Vray light in the scene with the options I want then copy/modify the light geometry in a VB.Net component keeping the lights geometry user data.

But it relies upon a light being in the scene to begin with!

What I really want is to be able to create the light entirely in a component. For this I think I need to;

1. Copy out some user data required to tell vray what to do from a light created in a scene

2. Modify the line that contains the render plugin Guid contained in the UserData. (So it can point at a Vray installation on another machine)

3. Apply the userdata to any new light created in the VB component.

I'm stuck, having spent far too much time already on something that may be a dead end.

I'd be very grateful if somebody could either point me in the direction of how to do it or say a little as to why it's not possible.

When I do UserData to string it doesn't print any content just the type.

Any thoughts?

*Please feel happy to chip in, even if you're not a guru on this stuff. I'm a beginner and appreciate anyones effort to reply.