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 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!"
"By the way I am a big fan of your book, web sight and of course the programme ... I've been mucking around with glazes for 30 years. I find your 5 by 20 glaze a wonderful teaching and learning tool."
"...this problem was in fact largely due to my own attitude. I rarely made practical use of this body of information myself in my own glaze work. You know the routine, find a glaze, run some sample test on tiles and make some variations, mainly color test, while never really fully understanding how and why glaze materials worked the way they do. Ron Roy's workshop certainly gave me the information I have been looking for for many years. The "immediate" response available through Ron's "Digital Fire Insight" computer program was extremely exciting to me! In conversation Ron we discussed the "Immediate feedback" available through your computer program."
"I am a BFA ceramics student who has just downloaded the trial version of your Insight software. What a great program!! "
"I am an independent artist and have been using your Insight program from the beginning. Through your program I learned a lot about the ceramic materials and their use."
"No matter, I love your program and the most excellent customer support! Thank you!!!"