Thanks guys. I thought sketchup would work. I figured coming to where the experts were would put me on track. Groups and components sound like what I need with the inference engine. The copy objects along a path sounds good, since I also wanted to try some patterns versus random appearance.

Searched your forum and some online. I may be using the wrong terms in my searches. I was wondering if you can do this easily with sketchup or should I look at other software. I am willing to read the tutorials and work to figure it out, I just didn't want to invest a lot of time if this isn't the appropriate software. In either case sketchup looks pretty impressive and I plan on using it once I get my woodworking shop together.

What I would like to do is create several rectangles each with a set dimension, say 3X8, 4X6, 5X7 ... and then be able to drop/rotate them repeatedly in a 2d area that has set dimensions and create different patterns. A little bit like you would when planning a room and furniture with cutouts, accept in this case you would be filling the whole space. I saw that I can create a rectangle and give it dimensions, but I would like to be able to easily drag and drop and have them snap to the edges of other rectangles that they are dropped next to. Just dragging a rectangle and placing it yourself seems like you might slowly be off on the dimension spacing, ending up an inch or so over. I would also like to be able to pick them up and redrop them or rotate them.