Thanks JQL and others! I appreciate the assistance. I definitely need a lot more practice on the basics.

Thank you for the prompt replies! I'll give these tips a try.

I am using SketchUp 2016 and the inferencing system doesn't seem all that helpful. It seems to fight me when doing basic drawing/drafting. It's probably because I'm new to this and need much more practice, but is it possible there are any settings I need to change for the inferencing to work best?

Thanks again for your help!

I'm encountering two very basic drafting problems in SU.

1. When I import a jpeg with my site plan base image, and then draw on top of it, the line doesn't appear on top of the image, but underneath it.

2. Sometimes I bring in line work already drawn in CAD (as a DWG), however there are times I need to draw/draft on top of a hand drawn site plan. Unlike most examples you see, very rarely do I encounter a plan that is all right angles, with parallel lines. I'm having a lot of trouble just drafting the basic line work before I can extrude the faces.

Any suggestions? I've seen people change the camera to parallel projection/top and draw on top of it. they make it look easy, but when I draw on top....lines don't show up.....and rarely are the lines and shapes perpendicular or parallel.

Thanks!