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.
"It and has opened up my way of thinking about glazes ... it has made me feel free to try many more things than I would have, as well as enhanced my understanding of how to get what I want. Many thanks, Tony!!!"
"I love the program and now have a ton of glazes to test."
"I've got Insight, I'm doing it right. I'm boiling the water, and shuffling the ice. I'm telling my glazes, "behave and be nice!" Don't craze, don't crack, don't mark, don't make me go back and recalculate! Three minutes boiling, Three minutes ice. They're still acting real nice. Three minutes boiling, Three minutes ice, Wow, still acting nice. Third time boiling, Third time with ice. I did it, they still look nice. Get out the Dazor, look at them real close, Put them almost right up to my nose. I tested them, I did what I could. I tried to make them craze, but they never would. I tested my glazes, I did it just right, I tested for cracks, crazes and marks. I did it all with Insight!!"
"I had no problems installing it: Save the file, double-click the file. Fetch the key. And off we went. Earlier in the day I downloaded the Insight Manual and read the first parts as part of my software selection process. I chose Insight because I like the layout of the working windows and the technical approach to classical glazes. It fits my way of thinking about material. I find the tutorials inviting and useful. So far, I like Insight very well."
"I was thinking when it was I first talked to you and bought the program... early 90s I think. I have used it a lot, and appreciate the work you have put into it. It has been very useful over the years. Thank You."
"I use a lot of commecial glazes, but am becoming more and more interested in developing my own palette... this has led me to look at the various calculation programs out there."