Thanks for the reply, Ken.

I've been using Maxwell Render. I like how the settings act similar to a camera setup.
The one is quite grainy indeed. I didn't give it as much render time as I should've liked. I needed my main rendering machine for other tasks at the end of that weekend. My rendering setup isn't that complex. I've got a mac mini with a quad i7 and 16GB of ram.
The larger, less grainy render took all of a weekend to get to the point it is. There were a lot of specular reflections from the light fixtures at the ceiling, and the "EXIT" signs added a lot of time, too, with the SSS material.

TK2

Thanks to you both, Richard and Frederik! I'm currently working on using both your suggestions to build out my Scrapbooks with certain devices. I guess my biggest complaint may not have been clear in the original post, or there at all. (I think I might have done the first time I wrote it, but my browser crashed when I tried to post the first time. I must've left this out when rewriting it!)

My biggest complaint was the lines between the plates and devices, especially the line-breaks/jumps at intersections. I know it can be done using 'Start' and 'End' arrow styles, because I've already made a riser diagram in LayOut, but it is certainly more of a pain than using a custom LSP to cut lines, then another LSP to pull the lines back a short distance. This is really the only bit I wish I could speed up (because after taking the time to eventually create/convert any common devices from CAD, I see the lifework connections as being the biggest time sink in LO).