Tutorial Videos

Overview

Digitalfire Desktop INSIGHT Overview Part 1

Part one of a complete tour. The anatomy of the recipe window, how to open, edit and save recipes; the materials, oxides and supply oxide dialogs, the MDT. (watch at Youtube).

Digitalfire Desktop INSIGHT Overview Part 2

Part two of a complete tour. It includes using targets, setting calculation types, entering recipe notes and details, SQLite and a review the menus. (watch at Youtube).

Downloading, Installing

Lessons

Desktop Insight - Difficult Formula to Batch Calcuations

Learn to do difficult formula to batch conversions. Learn mole%, finding frits by chemistry, Na2O sourcing, oxide oversupply, recipe line added status, overriding in the Supply dialog, when to compromise an exact match. (watch at Youtube).

Desktop Insight 1A - Compare Theoretical and Real-World Feldspars

While comparing a real-world and theoretical feldspar learn to enter, edit, save, normalize recipes and the materials dialog. Glaze chemistry concepts. (watch at Youtube).

Desktop Insight 1B - Turn a Feldspar Into a Glaze

Learn to compare a target formula with the chemistry of a feldspar. See why it does not make a good glaze by itself and what materials need to be added to make it into a balanced glaze. (watch at Youtube).

Desktop Insight 1C - Substitute Wollastonite for Whiting in Glazes

Compare calcium carbonate (whiting) with other sources of CaO (dolomite, wollastonite, frit), learn to understand the chemistry differences between materials and then substitute wollastonite for whiting in a specific recipe. (watch at Youtube).

Desktop Insight 2 - Creating a Matte Glaze

Learn to convert a glossy glaze into a matte by comparing its chemistry with a target matte formula. Alter the chemistry in such a way that the thermal expansion does not rise and it maintains good physical application and suspension properties. (watch at Youtube).

Desktop Insight 3 - Dealing With Crazing

Learn what crazing is, how it is related to glaze chemistry, how INSIGHT calculates thermal expansion and how to substitute high expansion oxides (e.g. Na2O, K2O) with lower expansion ones (e.g. MgO, Li2O, B2O3). (watch at Youtube).

Desktop Insight 4 - Add a Native Material to MDT, Build a Glaze

Learn to add a native volcanic ash to the INSIGHT materials database (MDT) and then create a glaze from it maximizing its percentage. Learn to impose an LOI on a material and why this method is better than line blending. (watch at Youtube).

Desktop Insight 5A - Glaze Formula to Batch Calculations

Learn to use a non-unity calculation to convert a formula into a batch recipe using theoretical and real-world materials. Retotal, round-off and make a side-by-side report. (watch at Youtube).

Using Recipe Libraries With Desktop Insight

Learn to how to download a recipe library from your account at Insight-live and open and explore it using desktop Insight (watch at Youtube).

MDT

Desktop Insight MDT: Adding a Material

Shows four different ways to add materials to the desktop Insight materials database (MDT) (watch at Screencart-o-Matic.com).

Desktop Insight: Maintain an MDT as a CSV File in Excel

Configure desktop Insight to read a CSV material file at each startup. Manage that file completely outside of Insight. (watch at Youtube).

How to Add Materials to the Desktop Insight MDT

There are four ways to do it. Copy and paste XML, type in the formula, enter an analysis as a recipe, handle the MDT as a CSV file in Excel. (watch at Youtube).

Case Studies

Convert a Cone 10 Glaze to Cone 6 Using Desktop Insight

Learn the chemistry differences between cone 10 and 6 glazes and how to make a glaze melt at a lower temperature without introducing other problems like crazing. (watch at Youtube).

Creating Rules for Calcium Carbonate - Wollastonite Substitution

How to use Digitalfire Insight software to determine how much wollastonite to add and silica to remove to substitute for calcium carbonate in the glaze. Create substitution rules. (watch at Youtube).

How I Fixed a Settling Glaze Slurry Using Desktop Insight

Learn to reformulate a glaze that is settling in the bucket. Al2O3 and KNaO are sourced by the feldspar, we will source them from kaolin and frits instead. (watch at Youtube).

Subsitute Gerstley Borate in Floating Blue Using Desktop Insight

Use Desktop Insight to explore ways of calculating substitutes for Gerstley Borate in the popular Floating Blue cone 6 glaze recipe while maintaining or improving the other raw and fired properties of the glaze. (watch at Youtube).

Substituting Materials by Weight: Why it does not work!

Wollastonite is 50:50 CaO:SiO2. So why not just substitute 40 wollastonite for 20 calcium carbonate and 20 silica? The answer will help you see reason why we make such a big deal of glaze chemistry. (watch at Youtube).

Substituting Nepheline Syenite for Soda Feldspar

Learn to substitute Nepheline Syenite for Soda Feldspar (and vice versa) using the KNaO concept in Insight. You will see the benefit of in-recipe substitution calculation rather than making general substitution rules. (watch at Youtube).