Work with Modeling view in Power BI Desktop

With Modeling view in Power BI Desktop, you can view and work with complex datasets that contain many tables.

Using Modeling view

To access Modeling view, select the Model icon found on the left side of Power BI Desktop, as shown in the following image.

The Modeling view icon in Power BI Desktop

Creating separate diagrams

With Modeling view, you can create diagrams of your model that contain only a subset of the tables in your model. This can help provide a clearer view into the tables you want to work with, and make working with complex datasets easier. To create a new diagram with only a subset of the tables, click the + sign next to the All tables tab along the bottom of the Power BI Desktop window.

Create a new diagram by clicking the + sign in the tabs section

You can then drag a table from the Fields list onto the diagram surface. Right click the table, and then select Add related tables from the menu that appears.

Right-click a table and select Add related tables

When you do, tables that are related to the original table are displayed in the new diagram. The following image shows how related tables are displayed after selecting the Add related tables menu option.

Showing related tables

Note

You can also find the 'Add related tables' option in the context menu on the background of the model view. When clicked, any table that has any relationship to any table already included in the layout will be added to the layout.

Setting common properties

You can select multiple objects at once in Modeling view by holding down the Ctrl key and clicking multiple tables. When you select multiple tables they become highlighted in Modeling view. When multiple tables are highlighted, changes applied in the Properties pane apply to all selected tables.

For example, you could change the storage mode for multiple tables in your diagram view by holding down the Ctrl key, selecting tables, then changing the storage mode setting in the Properties pane.

Select multiple tables by holding CTRL, then set common properties across all selected tables

Next steps

The following articles describe more about data models, and also describe DirectQuery in detail.

DirectQuery articles: