I LOVE The VS2005 Class Designer

Microsoft has made a ton of killer improvements in the VS2005 Class Designer since Beta 1. Here's a roundup of my favorites:

  • Performance: The Class Designer runs TONS faster now. Earlier versions ran at a snails pace.
  • "View Class Designer" Solution option. In one click I can map out the entire project. That's really cool.
  • Easy access to common diagram commands - The right-click menu has a ton of killer options
    • Layout Class - tidys up your class design
    • Adjust Shapes Width - automatically widens your shapes to fit all the data inside them.
    • Export diagram as image - !!!!

I was sitting here working on my diagram, and I was thinking... "wouldn't it be great if I could copy these shapes and paste them as an image?" I right-click on the diagram, and there's an option for it!!! Oh man, this thing is so sweet!

One more right-click option I'd love to have: Expand and collapse options. Like "Expand All", or something. Also, I'd like a shortcut to be able to expand everything, widen everything, and they perform a layout cleanup. That would totally rock.

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