Astar - Clarification

I have looked at everything I could find on here regarding the a* extension in tgb, but have a few questions that some of you may have easy answers to. I have read through Phil Shenk's extension document(here http://www.garagegames.com/community/resources/view/9711), though I am lax to put that in place as it was last updated in 2006 to work with tgb 1.1.0. My assumption also is that the A* package included in the TGB source essentially 'replaces' the need to use phil's extension code, though it does not appear that any of the methods in the aStar package are exposed to script. I have also read that the functionality is tied to the tilemap functionality through the editor and each tile's custom data entry, though I'm not sure how it expects the paths/pathActors to be created/managed. If there is a document or tutorial that I have over-looked that points to the answers of these questions I have not found it, though if such a thing exists I'd appreciate a link. If only 1 question could get answered, I would want it to be this : Is there anything that needs to be done before I can utilize the A* functionality included with torque and if so, what? Thanks in advance for any and all input/information regarding this.