If you are doing basic systems like a stand alone theater programming in simpl is very easy. A simple theater or one room system should take no longer than an hour or two if you are using decent equipment with RS -232 or discrete IR control. you simply name the signal coming from the touchpanel button press and drag it to the appropriate input signal on the device. Using other logic such as conditionals and creating all scenario covering logic does take some time. An IPad and qmrmc to control a display, AVR, and basic videos sources should take less than a day provided that you have existing network infrastructure and vt pro templates to use for the gui. System builder is a great tool but it applies alot of logic and is difficult to trace sgnals through. It also does not compile cleanly so when opened in Simpl there are many compile notices. I prefer to have a clean compile when in Simpl so I can debug easier. Systembuilder is good for large multiroom projects with small inferfaces like APads. Systembuilder can create some very large projects with many interfaces and crestron devices such as lighting, Tstats, XM, IPod, IPads, ADMS, etc. in less than an hour start to finish and be pretty complete. there are some systems that I have done entirely in one or the other, depends on the equipment.