Regarding the software, you'll notice I didn't show off Visual Pinball...I haven't had the time to get it working perfectly either.
I think that's why I've fallen in love with Future Pinball. The physics may not be as good but once you've got one table running it's dead easy to add more.
Like Swinks, took me all of about 15 mins to setup these 3 on my next project (mini cab).
I'll get to VP eventually...