I have been using EQ7 now EQ8 casually for about 5 years. I find it very useful even though I'm not really a quilt designer. I have used it to determine size of quilt when modifying a pattern, manage the colors in a quilt to make certain the same or similar fabric don't end up right next to each other, print out foundation paper or patterns, and on and on. I purchased the EQ8 lesson book and found that to be very very helpful.