Hi Jonny,
STL exporting is fine, although you don't get much feedback. You must press the Options button and adjust the Max Deviation setting, because the default is too course.
And yes is takes some getting used to, at first is seems quite unwieldy.
Don't try and figure out the pattern functions too soon, because they are odd. But mirroring works fine, and so do extrusions, filets, chamfers, drafts, shelling etc.