How much better is the WPF Designer in Visual Studio 2010?

Question

For those who have spent time in Visual Studio 2010, and work with WPF, how much better, if any, is the designer for WPF? Are other designers, such as Blend, still preferred, or can we be productive in VS 2010?

Answer 1

The WPF Designer in VS 2010 is hugely improved over the one in 2008.

It handles many more unusual cases without breaking, and does a better job overall.

That being said, with a few exceptions, it's still the same fundamental design as the 2008 designer. There are some new features, particularly for auto-generating forms based on data, etc, but overall, it works the same way.

As a result, I still find Blend a much nicer tool, overall, for working with WPF from a designer standpoint. I'm just very happy that the designer doesn't "break" as often, especially when doing things like using Blend behaviors, etc.