If you want to draw such things in SP it is totally possible. I'd say draw smaller things at full scale or larger so that they are easy to work with and then scale them down once set. For braces it is best to use a bunch of lines and arcs to guide your drawing of the parts. Then use the solid shapes to fit the parts you want. Textures and heights can be limiting. You only get 1 orientation of the texture on each shape (if you give them different texture assignments anyway). And, each shape can only have 1 height. So, if you are doing a dado or rabbet it will end up having to be multiple shapes or oriented in such a way that you can use a solid polygon and get the look you want. Then, once you make all the shapes you want you can either assemble them if they all orient correctly, or make each one a symbol and correct the orientation, then assemble them. It is all possible if you can think through how the parts fit and what makes sense drawing in 3D solid shapes.
I find having SketchUp and drawing anything I need for timber or odd symbols in there is so much faster. I can also control the textures on each surface of a shape if I want. And, I don't have to work through orientation of each piece. I can just draw it as I want it. But, it is also possible in SP. Just gotta keep things more simple.
