Rslogix 5000 emulate, Opinions?

Our vendor gave me a 30 day trial of rslogix 5000 emulate and I it seems a little disappointing. I might not be using it right. I wanted to use it to test my existing programs and HMI displays with the emulator, but it seems I would have to rebuild both around the emulator vs build the emulator to it. I am new at this so I hope i'm making sense. Any thoughts about the program or how I intended to use it?

Thanks,
Thomas

More realistic to use Softlogix than Emulate, however I think Softlogix support is starting to fate. With Emulate, you have to setup in RSLinx using an OPC topic the the HMI connects to that OPC topic. This method is different than connecting directly to the controller, which is why Emulate is a bit more of a hassle.