The first thing that crossed my mind when I was learning about SPMetal, was why isn’t there an easier way to call it. Something like an addin for Visual Studio.
It was only a manner of time, but someone has already picked the glove (and beat me to it).
Waldek Mastykarz has extended SharePoint Explorer (that is part of Visual Studio 2010), to allows picking a site, and running SPMETAL at it.
![preview[1]](http://blogs.microsoft.co.il/blogs/itaysk/preview1_thumb_466CCEE8.png "preview[1]")
Read more and download the addin here:
http://blog.mastykarz.nl/imtech-spmetal-definition-extension/