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 was at the wonderful workshop that Ron Roy held this weekend in Ottawa and am interested in purchasing insight based on his presentation. I understand you have very graciously offered us a 60% discount and I thank you very much. I thought your program was wonderful. I am looking forward to purchasing it and using it with (some) confidence. As Ron said, you have got to use it or lose it!"
"I have to share my absolute joy with you. I pulled out my tests from the kiln today and they were absolutely wonderful!!!! When people ask for the recipe, I'm going to tell them, "I'll do better than give you the recipe--I'll show you how you can create your own glazes that will be as wonderful these." Then I'm going to refer them to your web page. Thank you! Thank you! I am on cloud 9, where I doubt if I will sleep tonight due to all of the excitement!"
"The program really is changing the way I think about glazes."
"Glad to see you are still around and going strong. When we (Judy and I) started using this program in the 80s it was just a few steps above DOS commands. Now it is smooth and polished."
"Many thanks Tony, everything is now working as it should! It is a fantastic programme, congratulations, so much quicker than the slide rule of old, some 60 years ago now. Sort of ages me doesn't it!"
"The software installed great. I bought it specifically due to a crazing issue and to help with the fear of understanding glaze chemistry more fully. The video tutorials are useful. Insight as an invaluable tool to this quest of course, sort of a working course that goes at the users pace but which allows them to create their own recipes and truly understanding the chemistry behind them."