Tools to develop WPF or Silverlight applications

Question

List out the Tools and Utilities to develop Rich Interactive Application on Microsoft platform

The recommendations should have some sort of direct relationship with either XAML or Silverlight/WPF and not the common .NET utilities.

1. Expression Blend - XAML Development
2. Expression Design - Graphic asset creation
3. KaXaml, A cool and handy XAML editor http://www.kaxaml.com/
4. Snoop a WPF tool http://blois.us/Snoop/
5. Mole WPF Visual Tree debugger
6. Blender for 3D modeling http://www.blender.org/
7. Silverlight Deepzoom composer
8. SilverlightSpy - Suggested by @Bryant
9. Adobe Illustrator to XAML export http://www.mikeswanson.com/xamlexport/
10. ZAM 3D - 3D model/animation authoring tool; it also converts 3DS Max files to xaml suggested by @cplotts

Some other related questions:

• What tools do you use for WPF development
• How to speed up WPF programs? - has a list of related tools

Answer 1

SilverlightSpy is great for developing Silverlight apps.

Answer 2

1. .NET Reflector

   Helps you browse and/or analyze the WPF API (or any assembly).

2. ZAM 3D

   3D model/animation authoring tool; it also converts 3DS Max files to xaml.

3. Swift 3D

   Is able to open ZAM 3D models and shoot them out as a image (png) sequence for flip book animation. I believe it also offers some Silverlight export options.

4. Paint.NET

   Everyone needs a image editing tool whether it be Photoshop, Gimp, or this.

5. Notepad++

   This file editor handles large files xaml files well and it folds. This tool was a huge help when I was editing some big 3D model/animation xaml files.

I also want to say that I just stumbled across a debugger visualizer that is quick, lightweight ... nice to have alongside Mole and what it offers. Check this guy out: DepO

Finally, another StackOverflow post also covers this topic.

Answer 3

XamlPad (http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms742398.aspx) is great little XAML editor.