Hey all, fist post so be nice

I've been using SketchUp (free v. 8)for all of 2 days now. So far, not bad, but I'm finding it clunky as I'm used to command line entry programs. The application I am using SU for is simple model rendering and visualization for rooms I build in EASE. For those who don't know, EASE is a simple wire frame 3D modeling environment used to create electro-acoustic simulations. EASE exports to dxf and skp files only and is very limited in its visualization tools. Thus, my use of SU.

My issue is twofold:

A) the imported files have many additional lines and almost every rectangular face from EASE is now many triangular faces in SU. When I start blowing out these lines, any entity they are attached to goes away as well.

B) if I could easily create faces to replace the ones which I blow out, this may not be a big deal. However, when I create a face (most need to be polygons) they attach via the center point and not a corner or edge. When I attempt to drag corners into other corners to fill the holes... all hell breaks loose with my model. How can I detach faces and not make a mess of my model when I drag things around?!?!

ANY tricks, videos, settings, would be helpful. I'm sure that I am just missing something simple. Either when importing, exploding the imported model, or when if comes to creating my replacement faces.

I guess thats enough for now. Thanks in advance.

-Paul