AdaShape has published the first version of its free online manual. Go to adashape.com/manual/adashape and start browsing.
The manual is a work in progress. We would like to hear your feedback about it in our Discord.
How the manual is organized
The manual is divided into seven sections. The division is based on how you use AdaShape for various modeling tasks.
The 3D Workspace controls how you view the model. This includes orbit and zoom, rendering modes, display units, mesh detail and measuring. These controls change the view, not the shape.
Drawings are the 2D profiles from which extrusions, revolves, lofts, and curves are constructed. This section explains how to draw them, how to manage them, and how to recover one from a finished shape.
Shapes cover every way to create a new shape, including primitives, extrusions, revolves, lofts, curves, and imported files.
Modifiers are the tools that take an existing shape and produce a new one, such as booleans, rounding, sweeps, surface offsets, arrays, and Split Into Parts.
Positioning and Transforming define where objects are placed and how large they are, using the Position Editor, the Focus Pointer, alignment tools, and on-screen handles.
Instance Management includes copies, clones, packs, mirrors, and freezing. These tools handle reusable parts and help keep a model organized.
Managing Your Work covers bookmarks, multiple models in one file, and model references. Your design history and its variants are stored in a single .ads file.
The line between Shapes and Modifiers is deliberate. A tool that creates a shape from nothing or from a drawing is a Shape. A tool that needs an existing shape as input is a Modifier. Once you know this rule, you know where to look.
Each page has a permanent address. Links you save or share keep working even if new pages are added or the site is reorganized.
Licensing
The manual is licensed under CC BY 4.0. You are free to copy, adapt and redistribute it, including in your own training materials, as long as you credit the source.