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.
"I am having a great time with your software, thanks for writing it, by the way. I am a ceramic chemist and technician; I have just left a wage job in industry to begin consulting. I have used Insight before and it is my favorite glaze calc program. I have a similar personal mission to raise the general level of ceramic knowledge and expertise both in the academic and industrial worlds, and I have always appreciated the free share of knowledge that the digitalfire website is built around."
"I am not so good at computer yet the little I have known on this program shows that it is a must buy for me because beside the calculation I learn a lot of ceramics in the notes. Please let me know how I can pass on the money for the program and the book (CD) because I will surely buy after my trial expires."
"As I have downloaded the Insight software; I have started to study everything about it. It's an amazing thing, and I was very taken by it. I admire the work that you have placed into it and also your knowledge of Chemistry practice. "
"I am up and running with the latest version - easy install- love it."
"Have had the total package since September 2001, and love it. Work with it constantly. Trying to learn everything I can about revising to cone 6."
"Your program will take me leaps ahead in understanding how all these chemicals work to form a stable glaze. I cannot thank you enough. I am ready to make this "leap" into the world of glaze calculations. I have longed to understand glaze formualtion and until now I have been unable to find a way to learn it. Most teachers here, really do not care about the whys and the chemistry behind it. I am really so excited to be beginning this process. Thanks so much for all of your hard work, I greatly appreciate what you and Ron are doing."