The PDF Manual.
Modified: November 21, 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.
"INSIGHT has opened my eyes to the ease of cooking a glaze and the way of looking and thinking about glaze. "
"I ran the first of the video lessons on Insight, and I'm very impressed. It continues to be my favorite calculation program, and it keeps getting better. I especially like the SiB:Al ratio idea. It helps explain a lot of stuff."
"I do appreciate everything that you do with Insight. I have used it exclusively for years now. I LIKE INSIGHT. IT LOOKS GREAT. THE RECIPE CALCULATION PORTION IS FABULOUS. Thank you for your hard work. I know that your knowledge of programs and their workings are far beyond what I can comprehend. I'm just a user. Thanks for being there...may you live long and prosper."
"I am a new grad at XXX and have taken advantage of our lvl 2 membership! John pointed me in the right direction and your video tutorials have filled in all the gaps! You do amazing work! Anyways, I just wanted to thank you, this program has really transformed my approach!"
"I sure am enjoying working with my new Insight software. If nothing else, it gives me a way to organize my recipes--- previously I was using Excel. I have gotten great help from the effortless calculation of silica:alumina ratios for figuring surface quality."
"I am exploring the software today and learning a lot. I am just getting back to making pottery in my retirement. I am determined to take advantage of the wonderful communication advances that have been made since I was a youngster. The software illuminates much of the rote learning I remember from student days."