What tools do you use for WPF development? [closed]

Answer 1

When just starting out with WPF exploration I uncovered a variety of useful utilities (listed below). My article Essential Tools for the WPF Novice on Simple-Talk.com discusses each of these with illustrations and links.

General Exploratory Tools

• SDK XAML Browser (Microsoft) - shows XAML and rendered sample for any control.
• XamlT, aka Type Explorer (Rob Relyea) - reveals WPF class details in a novel interface.
• Gradient Editor (Layne Thomas) - gradient designer that produces XAML for you.
• Snoop WPF Debugger (Cplotts) - WPF inspector that lets you explore the visual content of a running WPF app.
• DumpControlTemplate (Charles Petzold) - displays the default ControlTemplate for any WPF control.
• SDK Viewer (Microsoft) - provides all the SDK documentation for WPF in a rich client application.

XamlPad and its Successors

(My article provides a detailed feature comparison table for these six editors.)

• XamlPad (Microsoft)
• XamlPadX (Lester Lobo)
• XAML Cruncher (Charles Petzold)
• Kaxaml (Robby Ingerbretsen)
• XamlPad Sample (Rob Relyea)
• XamlHack (Zhou Yong)

Answer 2

Crack.NET is a runtime debugging and scripting tool Josh Smith made that gives you access to the internals of any .NET desktop application running on your computer. If you love Snoop and Mole for Visual Studio, you’ll love Crack.NET, too. Crack.NET allows you to “walk” the managed heap of another .NET application, inspect all kinds of values on objects, and even manipulate those objects via IronPython scripts.

Crack.NET

Answer 3

WPF PerfTool may be useful

Answer 4

New: WPF Inspector

Answer 5

Some of the great articles having list of tools for WPF(from my bookmarks) -

The Complete List of XAML Tools:

http://www.realsoftwaredevelopment.com/the-complete-list-of-xaml-tools/

Windows Presentation Foundation Tools and Controls:

http://blogs.msdn.com/b/mswanson/archive/2006/02/26/wpftoolsandcontrols.aspx

One more I know of -

Pistachio – “WPF Resource Visualizer” :

http://www.granthinkson.com/2007/11/08/announcing-pistachio-wpf-resource-visualizer/

Answer 6

I use ReaderSvg to convert SVG (vector graphics) to XAML.

And not directly related to WPF, but very useful to understand how WPF controls work: Reflector.