William & Susan Schran User on tue 2 nov 10
On 11/2/10 5:20 PM, "DJ Brewer" wrote:
> I'm thinking on investing in a glaze software. I'd like to hear from
> those who use one -- which one do you use and why did you chose that one?
I tested Insight and Glazemaster looking towards using one for myself and
one in classes at school. After spending time with each, I found them
similar in some ways, I believe Insight has a better online/data base
support, but in the end, I felt Glazemaster would be less of a learning
curve for my students - just seemed a bit more intuitive to me. I also knew
John and Ron and never hesitate to contact either with any glaze question
and both are very good about responding.
I think you'll find both programs very useful.
Bill
--
William "Bill" Schran
wschran@cox.net
wschran@nvcc.edu
http://www.creativecreekartisans.com
DJ Brewer on tue 2 nov 10
I'm thinking on investing in a glaze software. I'd like to hear from
those who use one -- which one do you use and why did you chose that one?
Paul Lewing on wed 3 nov 10
On Nov 2, 2010, at 2:20 PM, DJ Brewer wrote:
I'm thinking on investing in a glaze software. I'd like to hear from
those who use one -- which one do you use and why did you choose that
one?
I've used all the programs that work on the Mac, including Matrix back
when it was a Mac program and I've seen all the ones that run on PC
only but not used them. In my glaze chemistry workshop I still demo
Insight, Glazemaster and HyperGlaze. I once led a discussion group at
NCECA on using calculation programs, where there were committed users
of every program then available. Two things were agreed upon by
everyone there: any program was better than no program, and everyone
liked best the program they had seen first.
Keep in mind that different programs do different things well or not
so well and the intentions of the programmers have a lot to do with
how easy any program will be for you to use. Some offer more help
than others, some are intended to do one thing and others are intended
to do another well. Some assume a lot of knowledge about computers
and/or glazes than others. Some are better recipe storage systems,
others are better at inventing glazes from scratch. All of the
programs have a set of functions that they do, some have lots of bells
and whistles above and beyond that, others have very little beyond that.
That having been said, here are my personal opinions, which are just
mine, and not objective at all.
Glazemaster is a wonderful all around program for both PC and Mac.
Easy to figure out, lots of technical help, good recipe storage
system, easy to control database. I find the formula to recipe
function a little cumbersome. This seems to be the common function
that varies the most in how it works from one program to another.
Hyperglaze offers more help right there in the program than any other,
good recipe storage system. I hate the hyper card structure though.
Half the time when I go back and forth from recipe to formula,
particularly when I go from formula to recipe, the recipe is way off
what I know it has to be.
Matrix I have not seen much since it went to PC only, but when it was
Mac only it had some very nice graphic representations of formulas and
limits and such and a very elegant formula-to-recipe function. If
that all got translated to PC, it would be very nice. I do know that
it comes with a great online tutorial on glaze chemistry, and it's
great at representing the Curry Grid system. So is GlazeMaster.
GlazeChem is PC only. I have seen it a few times and thought it
looked good, but I've never really used it.
Insight is the first program I saw, and true to what everyone else
said at that discussion group, I like it the best. It assumes you
know more about glazes than the other programs do, and it's, I think,
the best at inventing new recipes and adjusting existing recipes.
When I use a program in my own work, I'm usually inventing new recipes
to fit a particular need. It has almost no recipe storage system; you
have to build that yourself. It has the most amazing database of
technical information behind it that you can imagine, but while you're
actually working with the program, it doesn't offer you much help. It
doesn't do anything to help you specifically with the Curry system or
with building line or triaxial blends.
There it is, take it or leave it.
Paul Lewing
www.paullewingtile.com
www.paullewingart.com
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