Jump to content

Software Question


mjrprod

Recommended Posts

Not exactly a glaze question - however it does relate I promise. I am looking for an app or a piece of software that will electronically track my glaze results. I have tried using "Pottery Logbook" (I do not like this program - very clunky and hard to navigate) and "Evernote" (still trying to figure this one out, anyone have a tutorial??) and haven't had much luck with finding other programs.

 

What do you use that works really well for you? Do you prefer to stick to pen and paper? Is this simply a futile search? Any and all help is greatly appreciated.

 

Thanks,

Meg

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I usually use only commercial glazes -- I want to be able to load several photos of the item (what it looks like bisque with the glaze applied, then after firing to I can see the results) and have a space for notes (application notes, along with how it turned out, etc.) Most people who have answered this question on other sites simply use pen and paper to keep track -- but I am a very visual person and easily forget which piece is which. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I usually use only commercial glazes -- I want to be able to load several photos of the item (what it looks like bisque with the glaze applied, then after firing to I can see the results) and have a space for notes (application notes, along with how it turned out, etc.) Most people who have answered this question on other sites simply use pen and paper to keep track -- but I am a very visual person and easily forget which piece is which. 

 

This is interesting cause I was looking for something to do this as well. There are a lot of commercial products out there that do this type of thing, but take it a bit to far or are overly difficult to use or are not just right. 

 

I was debating building myself one as a side project to keep my brain in code, since I don't do much coding work anymore. 

 

The main thing I wanted was something really simple but that could go indepth.

 

I am currently using digital insight to do this, but I use it for my glaze changes, I change a few things then post a new tile in that new recipe. However it isn't exactly what I would like, and the interface is rather complicated to scroll through a bunch of different glaze changes. It could be better. My main use for insight is the chemistry numbers that you can get so quickly. That is so amazing.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Warning: My Random Thoughts + Wall of Text Below!

 

The problem with almost all software that I have found is there inability to keep track of the most important information then pull that information up instantly.

 

For example. If I was working on a bunch of slow cool glazes. I would want to catagorize them as slow cool some where. Then later on I could just check, sort by firing schedule, slow cool. and it would bring up every test tile I labeled with a firing schedule of slow cool. Of course you could build all your firing schedules somewhere in the application then when you create a new example you could click your schedules to note them.

 

This idea of firing schedule would also apply to clay bodies, glazes etc.

 

for example every tile I ever made using red rock. Click sort by clay, then have options of all the clay bodies you have entered. Choose red rock, and 34 images appear on your screen of the examples you saved under red rock for the clay body. Of course you wouldn't manually enter red rock each time. If I built the application it would remember previous clays, so when you click create new example, and the field for clay body appears, you would have previous options entered under it and you could just quickly check one, or type in a new one.

 

so say now you have all your test or saved examples with red rock, then you could further sort by, slow cool, or glaze type on red rock, etc, etc

 

This would make it worth it taking notes because you can actually use them.

 

Just having a field to put in data, then save it is useless if you have to manually flip through all that data to find something.

 

Searches are great, but limited. Say for example in your notes you type: I hope this glaze comes out a nice breaking blue. But it doesn't and comes out green. Well if you just have a search feature and put in blue, your going to get tons of randomness like this. But it is important to note that you hoped it comes out blue, because on your next test you can refer back to that and see how you came to this previous point. However that data is irrelevant for future searches. So its important to have keywords as a feature.

 

If you had a feature at the end of saving the input of a test or a favorite pot, you could save, and store these keywords such as: breaking green

 

Then in the future if you could pull up filter on all the keywords you created, and see - breaking green listed under that keyword listing feature. click it and see all the breaking greens keyworded pictures. find the one you like. click it and see all the data around it, find the test name, and then search that test name, and see all the iterations of that test that you did up to that point. ideally when you create a new test and label it with the same name + # the application would automatically categorize them together for future use.

 

 

 

This is basically what I want out of a software, so that I dont have a million tiles sitting in my garage with random numbers on them that I have to look up in a book and have not a lot of information about them, which is basically how I am doing most of my glaze testing right now.

 

 

I would like to have a work flow like this:

 

Open app on phone.

 

 

Choose between two buttons: application or result  - choose application if before firing picture of glaze application, etc.

 

Take Picture

 

Enter a quick label: 3(for a tile numbered 3), or a quick description of the pot. tall mug, fat mug 2, bud vase fat.

 

Press save. Start over and keep recording pictures with quick labels until finished.

 

This data would be saved in your login user information on the website part of the app, then later on you would go to your computer, and open the examples you saved, enter the firing schedule, clay body, details of the application etc. All of this data would be searchable by clickable filters, not through actually typing in the schedule name. Also the data would be entered by quick clicks of previously saved information like clay body, firing schedule name. The only thing you would type would be the application processes and glazes used.

 

Then after the firing you would pull out the tiles, pots, examples and go back to your phone app.

 

Click Enter Result Button

 

You would then see all of your examples that are incomplete because they haven't been marked as finished.

 

You then click: 3(for the tile 3), or fat mug 2. or what ever you label it as to remember it.

 

Take a few pictures. and those pictures are again uploaded to the website. Hit save.

 

Repeat process for all the rest of the results.

 

Go back to computer, click the button to see a list of all the unfinalized examples,test,whatever.

 

go through the list, finish writing any notes. Put in information that is super important about the firing, say if the shelve this pot was on underfired, or over fired etc. write any notes about what you want to do next. Give it a title, give it any keywords that you think are needed, Save as finished,. 

 

This way every time you created something beautiful, even if its 10 years down the road, you could go back and find it, see what clay you used, what firing schedule you used, the glazes you used, how you applied them, and recreate to the best of your notes the same pot, glaze, etc.

 

Again this is just my long winded thoughts a few months ago when I was firing test glazes every week. I wrote all this down as a better way to do it. I wanted to build it for myself, the only issue is that I have changed my plans for glazing and I didn't end up wanting to build it. = ( plus it would be a crap ton of work. If I knew of a way to make money off it, I would spend the time doing it, but I don't think anyone would pay for this.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I think digital fire is a little too much for logging pictures. Never tried pottery notes but I think an app could be a good option.

 

Joseph, If you create a good system of type-codes in digital fire I don't see a problem. I am yet to find that code system xD but all my tests start T000 A. You could label a glaze something like G-Number-Iteration-Firing-Surface-Colour. So G001-A-SC-GL-BL. Then anything with G001-A you search that and find all the test data. Anything with SC in the type code slow cooled, GL gloss. Whatever you like :D

 

Just some quick thoughts. All I have logged are my currie tile tests so have T001 A-D, T002 A-D and so on. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Guest JBaymore

Joseph, If you create a good system of type-codes in digital fire I don't see a problem.

 

That is the solution.

 

best,

 

..................john

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I'd think you could create something that would work, in Excel. If you did it on an iPad, for example, the photos would be there to import easily, if taken with the iPad, or iPhone. It would need all the column headings thinking through carefully, so that you could sort and get the information you wanted each time, but I think the program has the capability to do what you're after.

Have just taken a look a the Pottery Notes App mentioned above - looks as if it does most of what you're after - before I have a try myself, what are its shortcomings?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Pottery notes is a great app. It did take me awhile to learn how to enter all the information and customize it. The only drawback is the thumbnail photos are kind of small on an iPhone but once you click on the item the photos can be seen enlarged.

 

Paul

Link to comment
Share on other sites

three ring binder 3 inches thick, colored divider tabs.  numbers on test tiles, same numbers in book.

 

then the fun begins, do i use a title "varied colors with base glaze rutile green"  so i know which base glaze it is and group all the test tiles on a string?

 

or, group all blues together, all greens together, etc.    tis a puzzlement.....

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Maybe you could use Dropbox to file pictures in different categories and link the picture in excel or word. Dropbox works with iphone and androids I believe. 

I have Digital Fire and ceramicrecipes and a lot of paper notes I can't always find.  :wacko:

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Joseph you are on the right track and I love your work flow ideas.  the kind of functionality you are describing (search capabilities, photo capture, etc.) seems very familiar because we see and use parts of it in many other apps and software programs all the time.   It would save hours of my time and help me organize my entire studio if I had something like this.   Like you I am drowning in tests.

 

I have been using Digitalfire Insight for a few years and it is my mainstay for ceramics work in spite of its many shortcomings.  It is good for glaze recipes, materials and chemistry, but very limited for most of the rest of the functionality you are describing.  There is some ability to filter recipes by keywords, but beyond that very little in the way of custom fields or search.  I like Highbridge' suggestion of special codes (and there are some preset code fields built in to the software), but work-arounds like that are limited in scope and fall well short of the kind of functionality you are talking about.  (Unfortunately) they appear to be spending all their time now on developing Insight Live, their mobile platform, rather than streamlining and expanding the capabilities of the basic system to make it do the kinds of very reasonable tasks you (and I) would find very helpful.  Personally I do not use Insight on an IPad or IPhone or any mobile device because without a real keyboard it is pretty clumsy and slow, never mind the frustrating inconvenience of internet lag.  Until the whole software interface becomes click and drag with your finger I will not find a mobile platform with this or any other software very helpful.  Again, I love Insight and use it all the time, but only on my desktop or laptop.  Just my experience.

 

I tried to develop my own materials and glaze results database in Microsoft Access earlier on, but found the going too hard and time consuming.  While Access is a proper database program and therefore has great search and filter capabilities, it was not very photo-friendly or printer friendly.   

 

I also tried Excel and that was better in many ways, but still the same kinds of issues as doing it in Access, but without the real database capabilitles.  So no joy there.

 

Had not heard of Pottery Notes but will check it out.  Would also be interested if Matrix 2000 or other glaze programs help do these kinds of things?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I agree with Curt re Digital Fire - though I use it, it is primarily because I formulate my own glazes, and even then I end up doing chunks of stuff in Excel to set up matrices of tests.

Also, a major limitation for what you want is that it cannot easily cope with different firing schedules - the best you can do is put that in the notes or as a code for the glaze, but then you need one entry per firing for the same glaze, which is a bit counter intuitive.

Thinking back a couple of years to when I was selecting glaze software, I don't think any of the others will serve you better, and as has already been said you are probably best off with a photo cataloguing tool with good descriptive and tagging tools.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Archived

This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.

×
×
  • Create New...

Important Information

By using this site, you agree to our Terms of Use.