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 been very impressed with the software thus far as I begin to explore its features as well as your considerable expertise. My eventual goal is to simplify the glaze situation in the studio by employing Frit based glazes overall and/or simple base glazes that can cover a reasonable range of colors and provide consistent reliability (and safety) to the beginning student ... and avoid any toxic elements that would compromise safety in the studio or in the fired, functional, piece. "
"I bought an early copy of insight for my PC, then went on to have a stroke. It has taken me more than eight years to get back to pottery. Is there any way I might get an upgraded copy of the program? I have returned to the university ... I would be in a position to speak well about Insight, should there be any advanced students asking about calculating glazes. Thanks for the nice program. I've loved using it and need it again."
"I went to school for ceramics a few decades ago, but went to the wrong school as they did not provide glaze chemistry. My teacher would like to help me select a palette of premixed glazes to give me a quick start. I have chosen the route of learning the glaze chemistry on my own."
"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!!!"
"Well, I must tell you that you are currently my hero and I am spreading the word about INSIGHT to any of the potters I know that will listen, (although I must confess that I think many get scared to death when I talk about glaze chemistry.)"
"I will be formulating glasses to match a 104 COE. Thanks so much for your help, I am looking forward to using the program successfully to get the glass I am looking for. One real nice benefit for me is that you have frit compositions for my calculations as bases I will use - this alone is worth the price."