In today’s blog, we’ll discuss a highly recommended best practice in Power BI: creating a dedicated Measure Table. This becomes especially important as your report complexity grows and the number of measures increases.

❓ Why Create a Measure Table?

When working on real-world projects, it's common to create multiple measures across various tables. For example:

• A few measures might be in the Customer table
• Others in Sales, Exchange Rate, or other tables

This scattered placement leads to confusion – both for you and your teammates. If someone else opens your report later, understanding where each measure lives and what it does becomes unnecessarily difficult.

👉 Solution? Centralize all your measures in a dedicated measure table. It’s cleaner, easier to manage, and a Power BI best practice.

🛠️ Steps to Create a Measure Table

🔹 Step 1: Create an Empty Table
Go to the Home tab in Power BI Desktop.
Click on Enter Data.
In the dialog box:Click Load.
Power BI will now create a new table with one default column. Don’t worry — we’ll remove that shortly.

🔹 Step 2: Move Existing Measures into the New Table
Let’s say you already have a few measures like Demo 1, Demo 2, Demo 3, etc., located across different tables.

Option 1: Manual Move via Table View
Go to each measure.
In the Measure Tools ribbon, update the Home Table to Measure Table.
Repeat for each measure.

Option 2: Move in Bulk via Model View (Recommended)
Switch to Model View in Power BI.
Select all your measures using Ctrl + Click.
In the Properties pane, find Home Table and set it to Measure Table.
✅ This moves all selected measures at once – fast and efficient!

🧹 Step 3: Clean UpOnce all measures are moved:

Delete the default column (e.g., Column1) from the new Measure Table.
Power BI will now treat this table as a pure measure container, and it will appear at the top of your Fields pane. A neat, clean workspace!

Checkout Step by Step Tutorial for the same: https://youtu.be/LkOPFF4N9RY?feature=shared

🎯 What’s Next?
In the next blog, we’ll cover how to organize your measures into folders inside the Measure Table – perfect when you have 50+ measures across categories like Sales, Profit, Discounts, Time Intelligence, etc.

📢 Final Thoughts
Creating a measure table:

Simplifies navigation in large reports
Improves collaboration with other developers
Enhances performance by reducing confusion and dependency

Regards

Anmol Malviya

Proud to be a Microsoft Fabric community super user

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Power BI continues to evolve, offering powerful tools that enhance the data modeling and visualization experience. One of the latest additions to Power BI Desktop is the TMDL View (Tabular Model Definition Language), a feature currently in preview. This game-changing tool allows developers to script, modify, and apply changes to semantic models directly through code. In this blog, we'll dive deep into the functionalities of TMDL View, its benefits, and how you can leverage it to supercharge your Power BI projects.

What is TMDL?

TMDL offers a folder-based structure for managing your Power BI models, replacing the monolithic JSON file used by Tabular Model Scripting Language (TMSL). Instead of working with one large file, TMDL organizes your model into individual files for each table, perspective, role, and culture. This modular approach enhances clarity and simplifies collaboration, particularly for teams working on complex projects.

Key Benefits of TMDL:

• Improved Collaboration: Multiple developers can work on different parts of the model simultaneously without stepping on each other's toes.
• Enhanced Source Control: Easier to track changes, manage versions, and resolve merge conflicts using tools like Git.
• Simplified Model Management: Quickly locate and edit specific components of your model without sifting through a massive JSON file.

Enabling TMDL in Power BI

To get started with TMDL, you’ll need to enable it in the Preview features of Power BI Desktop:

• Open Power BI Desktop
• Navigate to File > Options and settings > Options
• Under Preview features, check the box next to "TMDL VIEW"

Once the preview feature is enabled, the TMDL view tab will appear on the left side of the Power BI Desktop window:

Exploring Semantic Model Metadata

Even if you're not looking to modify your semantic model, TMDL View is a powerful tool for exploring and understanding model metadata. You can explore any particular measure, column, table or complete Semantic Model. You can either drag and drop the field to the space or simply right click on it and select script tab

By clicking on this you wil be able to see the complete summary of the field as below

Boosting Development Efficiency

TMDL View’s code editor isn’t just for scripting—it’s a comprehensive development environment. Key features include:

• Semantic Highlighting: Easily distinguish between different elements in your code.
• Expand/Collapse: Navigate complex scripts with ease.
• Error Diagnostics: Quickly identify and resolve issues.
• Autocomplete: Speed up scripting with intelligent code suggestions.

For example, if you need to remove prefixes like "dim_" or "fact_" from all your tables, you can script the full model, search for these prefixes using regular expressions, and replace them in bulk.

Applying and Managing Changes

Once your scripts are ready, simply click the Apply button to execute the changes. Successful changes trigger a confirmation notification, while errors prompt a detailed diagnostic message, guiding you through troubleshooting steps.
It’s important to note that TMDL View only modifies semantic model metadata—it doesn’t refresh data or impact report visuals unless those changes directly affect them. For example, renaming a field might break existing visuals that rely on that field.

Use Cases:

TMDL view isn't just about scripting; it's about transforming how you manage and interact with your semantic models. Here are some practical use cases:
1. Bulk Move Measures into a Folder
Organize your measures effortlessly by scripting them into specific folders, enhancing model clarity and navigation.

2. Update M-Code Without Query Editor
Modify your Power Query M-code directly through TMDL scripts, bypassing the query editor for quicker updates.

3. Change Data Types
Easily adjust the data types of your columns using simple TMDL commands, ensuring consistency across your model.

4. Update Summarization at Once
Apply summarization changes to multiple columns simultaneously, saving time and reducing manual errors.

5. Find and Replace
Use the search-and-replace functionality to quickly update naming conventions or correct errors across your model.

6. Switch Between Import and Direct Query
Toggle your data connection modes from Import to DirectQuery or vice versa using TMDL scripts.

7. Import and Collaborate Using TMDL Scripts
Share your TMDL scripts with colleagues via email or platforms like SharePoint, promoting collaborative development.

8. Create Calendar Tables and Calculation Groups
Generate calendar tables and calculation groups directly in TMDL, streamlining time intelligence functions.

9. Utilize Multiple Cursors
Speed up your coding process with multiple cursors, allowing simultaneous edits in different parts of your script.

In upcoming blogs we will share detail about each use case in detail.

Conclusion

TMDL View in Power BI Desktop is a powerful addition that opens new doors for developers and analysts alike. Whether you're looking to enhance efficiency, improve model transparency, or collaborate seamlessly with your team, TMDL View offers the tools you need.

Stay ahead of the curve by enabling this feature today and exploring its vast potential. And don’t forget—we’d love to hear your thoughts and experiences! Share your feedback through the Power BI Community and help shape the future of Power BI.

Ready to dive in? Enable TMDL View in Power BI Desktop and start scripting your way to more efficient data models!

Proud to be a Microsoft Fabric community super user

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Creating a robust, reusable Calendar Table is one of the most essential steps in any data modeling process. And now with the introduction of TMDL (Tabular Model Definition Language) in Power BI, this process becomes not just easier but faster than ever—literally in one click.

In this blog, I’ll show you how you can use the TMDL View in Power BI to instantly create a rich calendar table with fiscal year handling, week numbers, month names, and more. You can also check out the step-by-step walkthrough video I’ve created for better visual understanding 📹.

🚀 What is TMDL View in Power BI?
TMDL (Tabular Model Definition Language) is a new declarative way to define tabular models in Power BI using code—making your model components (tables, columns, measures, partitions) more manageable, auditable, and reusable.

With TMDL support enabled, you can now:

• View and edit model metadata in human-readable format
• Create model objects directly using code (like calculated tables, measures, etc.)
• Track and version model changes easily using source control

🧠 Why Use a Calendar Table?
Having a dedicated Calendar Table enables:

• Proper time intelligence (e.g., YTD, MTD, QTD calculations)
• Consistent filtering and grouping across visuals
• Fiscal year handling
• Easier customizations for weeks, months, quarters

⚙️ How to Create Calendar Table using TMDL View?
Here’s a sample TMDL definition for a Calendar Table you can plug into the TMDL view.

🧾 TMDL Code: Download/Copy with correct Indentation from here: (Click)

🔧 Steps to Implement:

1. Enable TMDL View in Power BI Desktop (Preview feature)
2. Navigate to TMDL View in Power BI Desktop and Create a New Script.
3. Paste the code (Copy with correct indentation from here) into the TMDL Script Interface (Refer below screenshot)
   
4. Click on Apply button on top left.
   
5. Calendar table will get created, click on the refresh now button.
   
6. Explore the calendar table from the Data view
   
7. Note: If you want to change the date range or FY Start month then you can change it in the variables created in line 72,73 & 74. (Screenshot attached)
   

🎥 Step-by-Step Video Guide
I've also created a detailed video tutorial showing each step from enabling TMDL to using the Calendar table in your reports.

👉 Watch now on my YouTube channel [ANMOLPOWERBICORNER]
🔗 Video Link: https://youtu.be/ogEcYqf1yJI 

📌 Final Thoughts
TMDL is a game-changer for Power BI developers. With just one snippet of code, you now have a full-featured, reusable Calendar Table ready to go! This will help you:

• Save time ⏳
• Maintain consistency across reports 📊
• Simplify versioning and collaboration using Git ✅

📍 Follow my blog series for more such Power BI TMDL tips and tricks!

Proud to be a Microsoft Fabric community super user

Let's Connect on LinkedIn

Subscribe to my YouTube channel for Microsoft Fabric and Power BI updates.

Have you ever added multiple visuals on top of each other in Power BI and noticed that they don't always behave the way you'd like? Especially when using shapes as backgrounds with cards or KPIs placed on top — clicking the shape often hides the visuals above it.

In this blog, we’ll learn how to manage and maintain the correct layering of visuals using the Selection Pane in Power BI Desktop.

We’re officially into the second week of the Fabric Community DataViz Contest for May 2025 - and the energy is flying high! Whether you're still deciding how to approach your visual, or already in DAX formulas, this post is for you. And if you’ve opened the official dataset we provided, you’ll know it’s absolutely packed with columns waiting to be charted, sliced, and explored in Power BI. So today, we’re going to do a proper walkthrough of the dataset, column by column.

Have you ever wanted to extract raw data from your Power BI semantic models directly into Python?

You're not alone—many developers and data engineers working with Microsoft Fabric and Power BI run into fragmented documentation and scattered solutions. That’s exactly why I wrote this blog.

In this step-by-step guide, you'll learn how to:

• Connect to a Power BI semantic model using adodbapi

• Authenticate securely with Microsoft

• Extract full tables into your Python environment

Whether you're automating workflows, validating data, or building external dashboards—this blog brings everything into one place.

In this blog, we'll walk through a simple yet powerful technique — displaying multiple slicer selections in a card or text box in Power BI. This can enhance user experience by showing selected filters right on the canvas!