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 a Ceramic Engineering Student doing a COOP at Kohler Company until August. I have found INSIGHT to be very helpful on all of the issues I have faced since I started here. If I get a job in glazes after college I will resort to INSIGHT for any glaze issues I face."
"I'm up and running. Thanks for the excellent instructions in the manual. Super thorough."
" I have been using Insight to get smooth, matt glazes without crazing on various sculpture clays for cone 10, 6 and 03. I also use Insight to substitute Canadian materials for the English ones in my glaze recipes. Insight seems to be a robust program and I am glad that I chose this one. But I still am leaning how to use it fully. Also, I find the educational section of your website informative and it is very generous of you to share your expertise with the the rest of us. Thank you so much for your kind assistance."
"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."
"Since many potters/ceramicists I have met seem to be of the try-it-and-see approach and I come from a what-about-the-periodic-table-then-try-it variety, I get some blank stares. I see no reason to try it ten times when three can get you started predictably. Of course, I would have to know the chemical composition of a product but once I know that, it becomes math and balance."
"Excellent software you have created. Thanks again."