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 re-read chapters 5 through 7 in the book of mastering cone 6 glazes - those chapters made a world of more sense since reading Digital fire information on transparent base glaze 20x5 and the M vs. W version !"
"Your software loaded fine and looks great. Your message of control is spot-on. I have a Master of Fine Art degree where I concentrated in ceramics ... Coming from a time when I did all the chemistry on pad and paper, I'm delighted to see the strides you've made in your software because I've got 15 years of ideas pent up."
"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.)"
"Insight has been a big help to me in understanding my glazes and making new ones. Best money I ever spent for software."
"Thank you for your prompt responses, and for creating such a wonderful program. I am amazed at how much I have learned about glazes and chemicals through my short time using Insight. "
"First of all I have purchased Insight and it works great, thanks. I would like a cd of the (online) tutorials."