How large should I make the Windows partition in Bootcamp?

I've just taken delivery of a shiny new 17" Macbook Pro and I am planning to install Windows 7 on it and run SolidWorks 2010 as well as all the Mac side stuff (Adobe CS4, vectorWorks etc). The question I have is what do the experts here think I should set as the Windows partition size? I have a 500GB drive to work with.
Also, is it best practise to separate Windows files (eg the SolidWorks files) and the Mac files? Should I aim to have all the Windows native app files on the Windows partition or is it OK to mix and match (ie keep everything on the Mac side and access them from Windows)?

right. I've installed both the 64bit and 32bit versions of Windows 7 and Office 2010 CPP (plus all OS/driver updates from Windows Update as well as other necessary apps (like anti-virus, DropBox, 2GB of personal data)) on a 60GB BC partition and wound up with about 43GB free. I'm not sure what everyone else is installing but you do NOT need a huge partition/drive for Windows 7. 60GB will do you just fine (and believe it or not, Windows is my default OS. I use Snow Leopard for iTunes, Photos (all multimedia), web cam/skype, and have the lion share of my 500GB drive allocated to OSX.
Things are working very well with this configuration.

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