Follow up after our visit from the Wenzel guys (app engr & sales). They did a great demo of the software, and best part is that I wasn't able to stump them on how to inspect with our niche-market parts. The Wenzel's use all renishaw scales & probes, and the off the shelf availability seems like a plus. The OpenDMIS software in some ways seemed more versatily than Calypso, because you could get in and manually edit paths where needed, but for all I know, Calypso allows that too... I could also run OpenDMIS on our old Mitutoyo CMM as well, but doubt it for Calypso (and the $$$!). Accuracy specs on the Wenzel LH's is actually better than the Zeiss by 20 millionths, even with the passive scanning head, and I like the idea of an articulating probe where I don't have to come up w/ crazy star probes. Their big (marketing?) push is that the machine has all granite axis, lapped very accurately, and don't need crazy error compensation maps to give good numbers, vs other being made less expensively w/ extrusions & error mapping... On some forum there was a thread about CMM accuracy, and the person kept checking the same part over several hours, and would find the XYZ location would drift as the HVAC would kick on and off. All said and done, the machine would have an extra 100mm of Z, lose 100mm of Y travel, and cost about the same.
We've been talking with one of our customers that's a Zeiss shop, and what will probably push us over the edge is that they could provide programs & support as needed, and the possibility of more business because we can provide data to them in the format they want...