WPF, Blend of Visual Studio?

Question

I have heard of complaints using WPF (the xaml designer) with VS 2008-2010, but not with 2012. Is it still the standard to using Blend or does VS 2012 have everything we need? I know there was a recent release "Blend for Visual Studio". Is this the magic integration?

This is of course assuming that we don't have designers demanding Blend.

Answer 1

As of Visual Studio 2012, the XAML design experience is based on the same code that runs in Expression Blend for Visual Studio. This will greatly enhance the design experience in VS, but it still isn't the full feature set offered by Blend.

One caveat though: the current version of Expression Blend for Visual Studio (free now, with VS, BTW) is only for Windows Store Apps. Support for WPF, SL, Windows Phone, and SketchFlow will be available in Visual Studio Update 2. If you need it before then, you can download the preview version.