The PDF Manual.
Modified: November 20, 2021
Download it from the Files panel in your Insight-live.com account or from the home page at https://digitalfire.com (current downloads only include the program file, manual, starter recipe, materials - overrides data is built in).
We moved functionality to a private account at Insight-Live.com - because people now expect to get at their data from any device anywhere. And for our survival. Ceramic lab work is much bigger than glaze chemistry, it is a physical world where testing, observation, record-keeping are vital. Insight-Live is about maintaining that data. Its recipes share pictures, they have firing schedules, notes, development history, testing data, links, they belong to projects. And they accumulate into the thousands and are easy to find and compare.
Desktop Insight, by default, opens and saves recipes to its INSIGHTDATA.DB recipe database file (that file is in your documents/insight folder, it can be uploaded and imported into Insight-live). If Desktop Insight does not find the INSIGHTDATA.DB file on startup, it imports, into its database, all the recipe files (e.g. RCP, RCX) it finds in your documents/insight/recipe folder (it does not erase the original files, but no longer uses them). From then on, when you choose File -> Open (not File -> Open File System) you open recipes from its database (using the Recipe Database Window). When you Save you save to the database. See page 94 of the manual for more information.
Because you have to be able to compare ten recipes side-by-side. For physics as well as chemistry. And people need to be able to find thousands on any device from anywhere.
Insight FAQ
There is a direct relationship between the way ceramic glazes fire and their chemistry. Insight is a calculation tool anyone can use to learn and harness the power of glaze chemistry.
Without glaze chemistry you'll never really have control and you could be a slave to your suppliers or the trafficing in recipes that never work.
Overwhelmed by glaze chemistry? Try starting here.
"Have just spent a couple of weeks intensively exploring Insight and stacks to go yet. Congratulations! It keeps surprising me with the attention to possibilities, and forethought. In about 1993 I developed a system on paper to convert glaze formulae to and from analyses and Unity formulae, a completely circular system. It worked but very, very slow. My son is a long term sufferer of my rabbiting on about and therefore gaining understanding of ceramic technology. He is a BSc student and also programmer dealing in intricate database development interfacing with industry specific software. He is very impressed. Thank you for your contribution to this exciting ceramic world. "
"I participated in a workshop with .. when he was talking about glazes and demonstrating his techniques, I steeled myself to ask him if he worries about the functionality of his glazes. I figured everyone would laugh at me for bringing up such a subject, but I felt like it should at least be said, given the amount of young student potters in the group if nothing else. As expected he said he didn't worry about that. High fired glazes shouldn't pose any problems, was what he said. "Why is that?", I asked, "Is it because they are fired to such high temperatures that you don't worry?" He said it was. I want you to know that this is all a big challenge for me. But I'm determined to give it a good shot .. this is all a big challenge for me. But I'm determined to give it a good shot."
"Thanks very much! I am a former engineer/scientist and LOVE your product so far...."
"What a marvelous invention your Insight programme is! I love it! Many, many congratulations and, of course ,many, many thanks for sharing it with us ALL!"
"I was very pleased with myself that I could take your instructions, and sit down with the computer, and end up with a glaze that is very pleasing and reliable with many colors."
"I am one of those weird people who understood basic and organic chemistry and did very well in it. I also am a decent cook, so the idea of glaze chemistry is especially appealing for me. I downloaded INSIGHT to get just that, insight into the realm of ceramic chemistry. I do intend to become a level 2 member at the expiration of the trial."