Thanks for the welcome, Michael. I was never a fan of the complicated AutoCAD-way of using the keyboard (I used it regularly until around 2004 and it was a pain in the neck, at least for me), especially when it comes to coordinates, so the first examples you provided seem to be just the ticket; much more elegant.

This is the kind of things that I hope to, someday, be able to build with MoI. This is design by a friend of mine called Edward McIntosh. It's simply too curvy for SketchUp.