is there a way to lower a shapes opacity temporarily so that it would aid in aligning other objects behind or user other objects
You can set Opacity under Tools / Color. With the slider on on the right hand side.
See this page for more info:
thanks for such fast feedback. i keep seeing there will be a major update to the app soon. when will that arrive? sounds cool
is the opacity only with pro version?
The major update was released in December 2017, about 1 month ago (Shapr3D 3.0).
Saving Colors is a paid feature, yes. But you can try it out for free.