I am at a loss as to why I put in the rectangle dimensions as per the current cad scales and it goes to a large rectangle in no way like my input??? Is there something I have not filtered/activated???

Hello scomey, try the dynamic setting ( F12 ) that you may have touched.
Take a look at the bottom of your screen at the 8th icon from the left as there won't be no indication on the command line like with Otho On/Ortho Off.
How do you launch the rectangle command ? Do you type @X,Y to specify the second extremity or specify an absolute coordinate ?

Thank you Thank you!! F12 did it!