Jump to content

Glaze Calculation Software Recommendations


Saki

Recommended Posts

I am in the market for glaze software and was wondering if anyone might have any recommendations? I have been evaluating Glaze Master, but according to the website, the creator, John Hesselberth, is retiring and will not be supporting it much longer. The other options I have heard about are Insight, HyperGlaze, and Matrix, but I am not familiar with them. Any thoughts, recommendations, or suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Tony Hanson is the author of Insight, and has an extremely technical mind. He gives good explanations of his logic and reasoning behind the approaches he uses in the software video tutorials. He's also the man behind the digitalfire reference website many of us are fond of using on this forum. It's quite inexpensive for the annual cloud version of the software, which includes the desktop version. If you let the subscription lapse, and you've downloaded the desktop version, you can still access all your recipes and do the calculations, you just won't have the updates.

It's got a bit of a learning curve to figure out, but I found if I followed along on the video tutorials and did the same project, it made lots more sense.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Saki:

 

I use Glazemaster 3.0. It operates out of the document folders, so I am not sure what you mean by updates? Updates as in material changes, or programming? Never used the others, including Insight. Glazemaster allows you to view formulas in ten different perspectives. You can compare it to other formulas on the same page, compare to formula limits, look at unity only, molecular only, weight only, or all three at the same time. You can program your own formula limits if you plan to work on specific glazes or clay bodies. I have created formula limits for crystalline glaze and a specific porcelain body. It also has a clay body formulation mode. You have absolute control over the program, and how you view recipes. You can also take photos and attach them to individual recipes. I use a lot of technical grade silicas, fluxes, and clays that Insight does not cover: and I can add the analysis sheets as I go along. Bottom line is how much you plan on customizing, experimenting, and formulating you plan to do. Ron Roy, who co-wrote a book on Cone 6 glazes with Hesselberth, also included the formula limits for Glazemaster. Ron has a website that he constantly updates with any changes in material specs: easy enough to update as you go along.

 

Nerd

 

Edit: can also program it to calculate single line, triaxil, and currie grid system blends

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I use Insight, and although I do not use Glazemaster I think Insight will do pretty much all the same things that Glazemaster will do except the very last things Nerd mentioned above, namely the triaxial and Currie grids. I (and probably others) have asked Tony Hanson to add a Currie grid module to his software, but his focus continues to be elsewhere, namely making his software compatible with mobile devices. But this is not a deal-breaker, as the online calculator on Ian Currie's website is readily available and works fine.

 

Although I have not moved from the desktop version to the mobile version yet, I know others on these forums have, and they seem to be happy with how it is working. And I have noticed increasingly I find myself in situations where I was wishing I had the mobile version so ultimately I will go there.

 

Having Insight backed by Tony Hanson's massive online reference database is very convenient. It is easy to add new materials (including your own "custom" materials) to your glaze "cookbook" and there seems to be regular updates of material specifications and new materials being added to Tony's reference library.

 

Oh, and it works fine on a Mac - I use it on both Mac and PC simultaneously, because once you put your materials files and recipe database in the cloud any device you use the software on will always point to the same online database.

 

No matter which package you choose they will all take some getting used to. Each has its own little idiosyncrasies. Oh, and don't forget that much of the reason you will feel like it is hard is because of all the new stuff that YOU are learning!

 

Yes, your brain will hurt, but it will be worth it. The returns are huge. When you start looking at your glazes and clays through this window you will have many, many "A-Ha!!" moments and you will wonder how you ever got anywhere without the knowledge that these packages hold and can can reveal.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I think the best software to learn first is pencil and paper. Calculate a few unity formula by hand.

 

I use insight online, it is good but some things about it annoy me. Every time you edit or load up something it reloads the page and scrolls you all the way to the left. Only a problem when you have more than three recipes open at once but not a smooth workflow. 

 

I like to support hanson because of the great reference database he has. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Saki:

 

Given your questions of this past week, perhaps you should study this testing method:

 

Curt, High Bridge  Joseph F all use this glaze testing method. Suspect it would be of interest to you.

I like the flexibility of Glazemaster, but I also like not having my info in cyberspace for a variety of reasons.

Nerd

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Guest JBaymore

FYI....... For my ceramic materials courses at the college I use Insight as the "required text".  This has been the case since "god was a kid".  It is outstanding and Tony Hansen is outstanding with his contribution to the filed.  We use the desktop version for the classes.  Tony has been a great supporter of this education for as long as I have known him.

 

Tony has Ron Roy's material database table available in his software.  There also is an extensive materials listing of international materials... so f you want to convert recipes from say.... Japan to USA... and back ...... that can help.

 

Insight can also calculate on molar percentages and other conventions other than Seger Flux Unity, if you are familiar with that stuff.

 

I was one of the first people even DOING and also teaching computerized glaze calc on cheap home computers "back in the day".  Personally .... I learned to do it on a slide rule ;).  Taught a class on using the computer at MassArt starting back about 1981-82 or so.  We used software that I had written (Z-80 machine code and BASIC) and was marketing.  I chaired and presented at the "Computers in the Studio" panel at the 1984 NCECA conference.  (We were "ahead of our time".)

 

Couple of references on that ancient history stuff here: 

 

NCECA Journal article:    http://www.johnbaymore.com/page107.html

 

Ceramics Monthly article:  http://www.johnbaymore.com/page80.html

 

We've come a LONG way!  That online "Potter's Information Center" I visualized back then and the "online database" has turned into places like this convenient forum we are using.  Amazing.

 

best,

 

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

 

EDIT NOTE (8-21-16):  If I had not decided that I wanted to remain mainly a potter ("^%$# it Jim, I'm a potter not a programmer!")  INSIGHT is the type of software that I would have written. We didn't have the computing power or graphics back then (Remember 640K or RAM?) ..... and learning languages like C++ and such would have taken away from clay too much.  In college I had learned BASIC, Fortran, and COBOL.  Also used punch cards at first!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Thank you all for the very helpful and informative feedback on the various software. It sounds like Insight is the most popular and among the most powerful. 

 

Nerd: Thank you for the link to the Ian Currie test tiles method! I will look into that. Regarding GlazeMaster, the website just says that the creator is retiring and won’t be supporting the software much longer. I am concerned that if Apple puts out a OS upgrade or a new OS, the software may stop working. Also, there are a few features that I don’t like. For example, you can only look at 2 glazes at the same time, and even then only work with one of them. Also, it automatically saves any changes you make, so if I load a glaze recipe and then try adjusting the values to see how that will affect the unity formula, the new data is saved and I can’t easily go back to the original recipe. It sounds like I may not be using it properly, I am still trying to figure it out. I haven’t found the limits functionality you mentioned, but that sounds very useful.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Insight for me - I use the desktop version as there is no internet in the workshop.

As others have said, the materials database is good and extensive. Lots of options for the calculations, though it is still a manual process - you can't tell it to adjust a recipe to (say) increase silica by 5% and let it do it's own thing  - though that is common to all of the programs.

I'd like to be able to do a few more things, e.g.:

- include a firing schedule

- include supplier and price details for materials

- differentiate between materials I keep in stock and others (which are needed e.g. to convert a glaze recipe to use your materials)

- ...

(but my day job is in software, so I probably expect too much!)

though these can be added in the notes section and by adding tags for, say, food safe or reduction fired or whatever

Some of the user interface is a bit quirky - doesn't follow the Windows guidelines and I suspect not the Mac ones either.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Guest JBaymore

 

- include supplier and price details for materials

 

 

Tim,

 

Insight does that.  Check the MDT options ... there is a place for you to put in the price you pay.  The price per pound for any glaze (if you've done that) is dis[played in the "data" area that shows stuff like Si:Al ratio, Mol wt, and so on.

 

best,

 

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

Link to comment
Share on other sites

 

- include a firing schedule

- include supplier and price details for materials

- differentiate between materials I keep in stock and others (which are needed e.g. to convert a glaze recipe to use your materials)

 

Glazemaster 3.0 does all those things. Then again it is a vastly superior product over Insight.  Okay, maybe it is just an equal product: but I did have fun watching the veins bulge in the necks of loyal Insight users.

 

Nerd

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 2 weeks later...

Hello,

 

I simply use Excel with the free solver add-on. It computes recipes from unit formulas using the list of my materials. 

This fulfills my current needs, however Excel is not practical for other purposes like documenting testing, have nice recipe sheets with pictures, and so on.

 

I evaluated Insight on-line, which is good, but have some drawbacks for me:

- it does not calculate recipes from formulas (I think the desktop version does, but I would prefer something online).

- it is cluttered with technical information I don't need currently, and you can do all sorts of weird computations I don't do as now

- the materials are all US, not the ones I buy in France, so I would need to provide my own inputs, which is tedious

 

Jean-Pierre 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Guest JBaymore

- it does not calculate recipes from formulas (I think the desktop version does, but I would prefer something online).

- it is cluttered with technical information I don't need currently, and you can do all sorts of weird computations I don't do as now

- the materials are all US, not the ones I buy in France, so I would need to provide my own inputs, which is tedious

 

Jean-Pierre,

 

Not sure if French materials are well represented......  but Insight has a HUGE materials database that includes a lot from the whole world.  I have a lot of international materials set up in my desktop version from that database.  You just tell it which ones you want to include in your personal MDT.

 

As to calculating recipes from molecular formulas....... it does that with "human assist".  Back in the early 80's I wrote code for the glaze calc software I was developing that would automate that process... but it was tied heavily to a specific set of instructions I gave it.  So it always wanted to solve the recipe in the same manner... meaning the choices it made were very predictable.  I didn't like that aspect....and preferred to make the choices myself on the fly.  With todays level of potential AI...... hummmmmmm............

 

best,

 

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

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.