Object alignment with Sketch Tool

Wondering if someone can provide some assistance here.

I've done a search to find an answer, but all the results seem to be contained within the licensed T3D section and I can't access them as I'm not yet a licensed owner.

So, I'll ask here in hopes someone can help me out..

I'm trying to mock up some objects using the Sketch Tool and am finding that the objects are doing either or both of two things consistently:

1) being created at odd angles - even if I'm in top-down Orthographic view.
2) Getting distorted when resizing or moving faces along an axis (X,Y or Z).

For example, I create a basic rectangular block, it's either coming out wonky in the first place, rotated at an odd angle... or it looks okay, until I try to move a face along, say, the X axis to make it narrower. As it gets narrower, I notice it's also becoming more skewed.

Is there a way to restrict creation and editing of objects in the Sketch Tool so they remain strictly along the cardinal axis? I've seen videos of people using it (such as that awesome one by Sickhead Games), and they don't seem to have any issue with keeping things aligned.

Also, it seems very jumpy when scaling or moving a face. Instead of sliding smoothly, it jumps by large distances.. and it's not a "snap to grid" type of jumpiness, because the distances are completely random.

Is there some toggle I'm supposed to be using somewhere? I've searched but, again, can't find anything.

Thanks!