Labview

What kind of processing will you be doing with the analog and discrete inputs and what kind of update speed do you need?

The analogs will be read and write for speed control and reading pressure, the discrete tags read and write to direction and two other auxillarys the remaining inputs to monitor fault conditions of the machine. Update times at one second per node will work (faster is desired due to the number of nodes but may not be realistic).

It sounds like a small bit of code can be used many times over so maybe thats why the vendor's quote was low (but I guess that could be said for anything).

I've found LabView to be good for testing applications; leak test, torque test, etc., much stronger with the built in graphical language than simply a display application. Its kind of klunky for control. The advantage is you get a HMI built in. So, as long a you are not concerned with a fast update, it may just do fine.

I think you can download a limited version of LabView or a "get familiar" demo at National Instruments if you want to know more.