I am using autocad to primarily draw rectangles to begin with. Previously i have been able to select the rectangle icon, and then enter my dimensions in and it draws it to the correct size. Now it seems that a setting has been changed somewhere and instead of drawing the rectangle to the size I need it, it places the upper right corner at the coordinate system location of the two dimensions that I type in. I believe that it is using some sort of absolute positioning system to read the dimensions. Also it no longer shows the dimensions beside the pointer as I'm moving across the screen. I need some help on how to change the settings back or whatever to fix this problem.
Do I understand from your post you are just typing x,y to get the rectangle to draw? If so, you can take better control, all the time, by typing a complete positioning entry instead of a partial one.
To enter absolute coordinates, use
#x,y
To enter relative coordinates (2D)
@x,y