Just a quick comment on sketches. As far as I know, all parametric Cad modellers require you to create sketches on a 2D plane. This plane however can be aligned as you like. The reason is that they are parametric. You can go back and edit sketch 1 and the changes ripples through the model. Yes, Solidworks and Inventor have 3D sketches as well, but these are used for something different than creating basic shapes (they are for things like extrusion paths). The idea of sketch planes is something you have to get used to if you want to do any CAD modelling.

MoI has this facility, if you want to use it, in the form of workplanes, so you can draw curves and other objects "off axis". However, it is not parametric, so you can't go back and change it later.