Mark
I have resisted answering your original post over the last few days, for the obvious reason that as an IMS employee I have a somewhat vested interest in our product.
There have however been a few people who have kindly answered your post and given independent views on your situation. I thus feel that I can now at least comment as it is now an open discussion.
I happen to know that SILMA is a fine product and I do not have a negative to comment on it. I do however feel that Virtual DMIS will more than provide all of the capabilities that you require for off line programming. I really can't see any real reason not to use it, as you know it will be 100% compatible with the supplied system. An other benefit of Virtual DMIS is that, should you have any other brand of CMM then you will be able to generate DMIS programs for them also and there is also a reasonable chance that a 3D model will be included as standard on the Virtual DMIS CD.
$5000 is a substantial chunk of cash that would go a long way to purchasing another off line seat of Virtual DMIS.
Best of luck, in what ever you decide.
Stephen Edwards
Export Sales Manager - IMS HQ, Scotland.