Cant seem to get started

pesky

Dick, from Cullman AL.
I cant get past what to do first!

I wanted to do a simple ad-on back porch. My idea was to make a sketch. Then make the sketch filled in with each board to count what I'd need.
Somehow all I got was the sketch.

How to put in feet and inches somewhere and make SU draw the line, instead of trying to make the mouse stop on an inch!

I'm downloading tutorials now.
I'll comeback when I know what to ask!

Gaieus

Hi Dick and welcome!

Now do this to draw a line with 3' 8" (that's just my example - you can certainly use any other value):

click somewhere where you want to draw your line.
start drawing the line (pulling it out as a rubber band) towards the direction you want to draw it (for this, the best to align your drawing to the axes as your line will become red, green or blue while drawing, letting you know that you are along your chosen direction)
now comes the tricky part: type 3'8" on your keyboard and hit Enter.
In the meanwhile, you can see these values in the Measurement box at the bottom right of your SU window but note that you never have to click in there (more exactly never click in there to enter the values because it will not work - just type and enter)
Also, if you are annoyed by the length snapping of SU,
go to your Window menu > Model info dialog > Units and disable length snapping.
Now save an empty file with these (and any other, custom) settings under File > "Save as template"
and choose this template for SU to load with every time you open it under Window > Preferences > Templates.