Yes, AdverseD is basically correct.  Sevcik is a mountain of work and is impractical for a video diary and the practice time limits of an adult beginner.  So whats the big fuss about this Rode scale book?  Well, its an experiment to see if the really slow and really fast bow speeds and the imbedded dynamic markings actually work in producing overall dexterity and eliminating some basic problems such as bow bounce and nervous bow tremor.  I like the fact it is very concise and imbeds tonal change inside a simple musical context without all the explicit physics (monitoring speed, pressure variables) and visual cues (watching the string vibrate as widely as possible).

The philosophy of Rode is to get the most intimate feel for the bows interaction with the string always in the simplest musical context of a scale.

Jim, its a preface to the actual caprices which are extremely difficult. Well, for me, its simply the sustained tone exercise that I think is important and to my knowledge is missing from Sevcik. Pierre should upload the publicly available Casorti "The Techniques of Bowing Op. 50" which I think is the nicest concise collection of exercises for the bow. Other than that, Sevcik is really great except I think the Beginners School is a complete waste of time. It reminds me of the dreadful experience I had with Suzuki. Opus 1 is the most sensible starting point as you wisely advise and Pierre's Dexterity exercises came out of it.

The confusion arises out of the best reference for the violin, Flesch Art of playing the violin book 1. He warns that Sevcik must be used sparingly. Just doesn't make any sense to me.