Downloaded Inkscape maybe a year ago. Just now trying it out on a small illustration project...line drawing. Coulda used CAD. Here's what I did:

Set the grid for 1" both directions. Set to emphasize 12th line...every foot. Turn on Snap to grid. Needed a rect. 44.25" by 88.5". Made a rectangle with Stroke turned off. Dragged the sides to the nearest inch. Typed in .25 and .5 in the data box thingy. This grid makes it really easy if you have even feet or inches. Can do 1/8", 1/16", etc. with a little math.

The question is...Know a better way to do this in Inkscape? Thanks.

I would use the rectangle tool and draw a rectangle any size. Then go up to the tool bar where it says "W:" and "H:" I would type in the size I wanted. Note that the default units are probably set to pixels but there is a drop down just to the right of there which allows you to change them on the fly.

I'll have to agree that going from CAD to Inkscape is a learning curve.

My favorite almost free 2D CAD program is Qcad.