You could try to use Calypso instead if that fits your needs. Calypso will work with mendix 7 & 8.
I use VisualBasicCode with extension 'Live Sass compiler’ and an extension-setting to make it store the resulting main.css and main.css.map in the deployment-dir.
"liveSassCompile.settings.formats": [
{"format": "expanded", "extensionName": ".css", "savePath": "/../../../deployment/web/styles/web/css/"},
{"format": "expanded", "extensionName": ".css", "savePath": "/css"}
]
No more need to reload the entire app :-)