Creating custom visuals in Power BI with DAX

Create dynamic images in DAX measures to visualize data in tables or cards, including an easy way to do this in Figma, and a caution for using these DAX measures in real-life scenarios.
Article and download: sql.bi/852043?...
How to learn DAX: www.sqlbi.com/...
The definitive guide to DAX: www.sqlbi.com/...

[@kukeleku13]

Beautiful explanation. I appreciate the disclaimer of considering the amount complexity you're adding to the report. It's not all about showing your skills. It's about adding value to the business.

[@KurtBuhler]

💯 definitely. Utility and quality above all.

[@adelsassi1531]

I'm learning D3.js and your tutorial just broadens my vision of how creating custom visuals for Power BI. Thank you Kurt!

[@jeffweir9358]

Outstanding video, Kurt. Incredible to see you build this in realtime. I was expecting you to say "SVG is simple, but not easy" though. :-) I've played around with SVG Sparklines before, allowing me to have filled sparklines (which are much easier to read given the fill provides a baseline) and at the same time building in a dynamic option to let users choose whether they are scaled individually or as a group. I've been banging my head on Power BI's native databars of late - bemoaning their lack of conditional formatting or the ability to scale databars in different columns relative to each other. This reminds me that I have the power to build what I want, rather than holding my breath for MS to come to the party. Thanks for the inspiration. Loving seeing SQLBI content focused at the whole point of DAX...to help users make smarter decisions with less pain.

[@KurtBuhler]

Thank you jeff!!!

[@HachiAdachi]

Had NO idea you could animate SVG... 🤯 Thank you for this fascinating intro to SVG custom visual, Kurt!

[@Kraazy4u]

Thanks for sharing! I’m really looking forward to future Power BI updates that will make custom visualizations much easier. This feature will be a real game-changer for our data presentations!

[@tmaris]

Great explanation and the best implementation of SVGs in PowerBI I've seen! Thank you Kurt!

[@John14_]

This is very helpful. I did not realize Deneb was a thing nor did I know you could take this SVG approach. I hope more videos will be put out on this topic as I'm very deficient when it comes to the design aspect for Power BI.

[@Rodrigo-od1dk]

Awesome video as always! I needed that overall take on the possibilities when not using standard visuals. Thanks!

[@jelithompson]

Just when I think I’m getting good at something, I discover I know nothing. I definitely would have tried to use a built in visual and it would halfway work (which means it doesn’t really work). Thanks for the information, sparking some ideas, and for keeping me humble.

[@smilyhemant]

Just awesome. I agree that we need to consider the time taken to build the visual and it's actual impact on the report. But it is really nice to have it as a side project

[@jginty]

Thank you for this video. It provides a great overview of the different approaches to enhancing visualizations. The review of the pros and cons of each method was very helpful.

[@sidneyjenkins1218]

Great job!! Please share more videos on the SVG approach and animation techniques. Very very helpful!! Thank you! 😄

[@JapjeetS]

Thank you for a very detailed video. Its always good to know techniques we can use when nothing else seems to be working and is the best way to share the information. Its complicated for sure but definately has its own usecase scenarios too

[@GaganDeep-hb2xu]

What an explanation! SQLBI never ceases to impress. 🙂

[@Ju4n_R0j0]

Thanks, Kurt!! This, as all of your videos, is gold! I' also a big fan of the MacGyvering method..

[@KNP-BI]

High quality as always Kurt! Love the ending. 🤣

[@jenniferyepez1947]

New subscriber! It's insane all the things you're able to do with Power Bi. Will apply this soon :D

[@LegendaryBullStrike]

Awsome learning content in here! I just would like to point out, that with Python/R visuals, you have some more limitations that you have to take into account besides the ones Kurt mentioned. Specifically, if you intend to serve the visual for a large audience via PBI Service, take into consideration that Python/R visuals can only be deployed via a Personal Gateway, which can be a constraint in larger organizations that use Enterprise Gateways to update PBI report in the Service. Cheers!

[@KurtBuhler]

Python/R visuals don't require a personal gateway, actually! That only applies when you use Python/R integration in Power Query. This may differ depending on the configuration of your visual, but generally, that's how it works. Also, you are limited in terms of what libraries are supported.

[@andresramirezortega6218]

This svg custom visual just blows my mind!!!

[@akashgupta4081]

Nice explanation, as expected. True gem for working professionals

[@carloserodriguez2465]

Thank you so much for this explanation it was very helpful to understand the basic and the standard approach to work with this visual.

[@gauravguliani358]

You're remarkable! Thanks for producing gold standard material each time

[@emilmubarakshin49]

SQLBI does it again! Absolutely love the video and certainly appreciate the consideration of the trade offs involved. And thanks for the post credits :)

[@acunarro]

Great video and explanations! Thanks for sharing Greetings from Uruguay!

[@DoThePoint]

Very interesting and well put together as always. Thanks Kurt!

[@Kukuletz]

Very good explanation, both of the advantages and disadvantages of using SVGs in DAX. I am sometimes using Deneb for specific customer visualizations i need, would love to see a video on best practices for those.

[@KurtBuhler]

More on Deneb in probably January or December.

[@SirTupsAlot]

Great stuff! Thanks so much. Looking forward to trying this out.

[@emma9427]

Great video! All the steps are clear and really helpful! 😁

[@mwaltercpa]

This blows my mind! My marketing mgr. jokes that he wants blinking good/bad icons… I might just surprise him w this. I’m giving this a go. Thanks Kurt! 😊

[@KurtBuhler]

Thanks Mark!

[@pauljonze]

Great video, really informative. If the range of values isn't too large it could maybe even be possible to put all the progress svg schemas in a table and then index them to change depending on the value being referenced

[@officesuperhero9611]

This is an amazing tutorial. A real game changer! Thank you for sharing this.

[@JenyKoch]

That is a very nice and realistic explanation. with lots of examples

[@naylord5]

This is pure gold! Thank you so much for sharing

[@VeganSmasher]

Dude, this is PFM. Thank you!

[@deepakbhatta07]

Super helpful video ! Can you please mention the tool you are using for annotating on screen ?

[@nelsoncruzg]

Looking for the same! I usually screenshot and annotate the screenshot, not great

[@lucasszymkowiak6765]

Thanks for the clear explanation!

[@DeronHuskey]

Wonderful demo!

[@zakarie]

what drawing tool are you using?

[@nejhadehyarollahi4735]

Amazing stuff, I just enjoyed every bit of the video. thanks a lot.

[@victorionescu7653]

Thanks, very good presentation!

[@markusoestreich8695]

I wish you would have shown also Deneb a little bit ... but great video thanks

[@manthanmistry1205]

That was very helpful Kurt. What platform do you use while explaining? Those handwritten text looks awesome ❤

[@KurtBuhler]

Figma // FigJam IIRC :) Thanks

[@alexcastas8405]

This is really good info, I’m going to try it for a project I got coming up now. Thx

[@mienzillaz]

Brilliant. Will there be part two for Deneb? 😅

[@KurtBuhler]

We will definitely be covering deneb in more deets later

[@DavidPesante]

Great video... really appreciated. Great explanation. One observation with respect to this approach and the MacGyver approach is that usually they require a lot of DAX measures to get them to work. Have you done a performance comparison between this approach and say using Deneb which would only require the original DAX measures and not the other measures you end up creating to support the dynamic aspect of the visual. Any thoughts on this?

[@KurtBuhler]

Generally depends cant say anything that applies to all situations but overall youre right that deneb keeps the model cleaner and has less object overhead.

[@Kurtosis3]

Thank you for that great tutorial! Could i ask which design tool you used to visualize the concept at start?

[@KurtBuhler]

FigJam IIRC

[@spen2431]

Wow... 🤯🤯 - Thanks for sharing

[@Qweertyyuiiop]

that was amazing, i cant wait to see what people start coming up with

[@antoniodamore]

Bellissimo video, apre scenari di personalizzazione molto interessanti.

[@GaryThomann-CoGC]

not only does kurt code on the fly ... but creates tunes on the fly ... nice outro bro :}

[@fUlViOMavaracchio]

This is amazing! Thanks Kurt, ciao.

[@KurtBuhler]

❤

[@joeachakji]

very nice! I might try to use this

[@arimaelg7793]

Great Tutorial!

[@olbu]

Great Video! Many thanks!

[@strafanich]

the post-credits scene had me laughing audibly :D

[@edgards]

Thanks for sharing this tutorial

[@pawlowski6132]

Fascinating. I'll be working on this this week. Any chance someone could pause and drill down on the technique or method for escaping the double quotes? That went a little fast and I don't know if I would be able to reproduce that step or technique based on this video.

[@KurtBuhler]

Sorry for that, you can either use find/replace in tabular editor or you can highlight it and press Ctrl+D in the dax formula bar to select the next occurrence of the highlighted text

[@dangnguyen5465]

Very useful. Thank you

[@davidoj519]

Awesome article! some months ago i was searching like this! i use it with moderation! xD

[@oriby1]

Hi, how did you make this on time stamp blink?

[@KurtBuhler]

You will have to search and read about "svg animation " its a sizable topic but theres good docs out there

Great!!! Thank you so much!! ♥

[@KA-rk9to]

Hey interesting stuff What’s the shortcut to select and escape out? Br

[@KurtBuhler]

Ctrl+D to select next occurrence of highlighted text. I have a script to do this in TE2/3

[@louwjhl7227]

Wow, that is next level!

[@patrickharilantoraherinjat2994]

Just amazing... thanks

[@druthorah]

The Important Message at the end ✅️ 😂

[@ginaramirez2313]

thanks for the video!

[@MalvinCleoSabillo]

thanks sir, I have a question please. Will it takes more time to load if I will do this and will be handling 50 - 60 millions of rowsand 10-20 columns of data? THank you my good sir

[@David863006]

Ich liebe SVG in PowerBI. Man kann echt schönes Zeug damit machen❤.

[@3rjc11]

When you PowerBI in god mode. This blew my mind

[@ankitsharma1943]

loved your videos

[@trulli777x]

Pretty cool!

[@hi_vishy]

Very honest❤

[@LavKK1998]

crazy usefull.

[@김차수-k2u]

Amazing!!

[@LavKK1998]

That is crazy usefull.

[@hongyangtan9897]

Great!

[@tchaitow]

love the last 10 seconds!!! hahah

[@KatWheeler-z5f]

So cool!!

[@TomGee-n1n]

Hi - Not related to this vid but I'm hoping you can help! I'm trying to come up with a way to conditionally format the value of a calculation item that exists only inside of a calculation group when displayed in a matrix. My calc group is simple - it has three calculation items. The value of the selected measure for the last N days, the value of the selected measure for the previous N days, and then the third calculation item compares the last N days (user selectable) of the selected measure to the previous N days and reports the difference as a percentage. What I need to find a way to do is to format that percentage as a red font or a red shaded background in the matrix if it is a negative value. Ideally yellow for slightly negative and red for neg values beyond a threshold. I found your vid that explains something similar, but it is based on the name of the selected measure. What I need to do is conditionally format based on the value of the calculation item that exists only inside the calculation group which then is shown in a matrix. Any suggestions!?

[@jimmydaddy7]

I know what that outro song is!

[@AbhishekSharma-dn5us]

Haha Good one at last !

[@kot23]

Comments in DENEB?? Since when? :)

[@debug943]

Deym!

[@jonglassmusic5813]

How’s this look in 2024?

[@KurtBuhler]

Great!

[@Julian-w1k9v]

I demand Italian accent

[@KurtBuhler]

Beepity boppity boopity ima kurt hello - here you go

[@1yyymmmddd]

Not that complicated, just many things have to be taken care of. Would have loved Figma part explained in more detail.

[@KurtBuhler]

More coming on figma...

[@JBartlett_DMU]

@@KurtBuhler Any chance you'll demonstrate this technique with a FOSS SVG app like Inkscape? Some of us don't have Figma and won't be getting it any time soon.

[@Master_of_Antares]

Look guy with long hair, you need to stop talking about customers, and start making reports about D&D. Don’t think we didn’t see those sneaky minis creapin up on you in the background. 😂

[@qaz56q]

Fascinating, but unfortunately not useful for many companies in the long term. Even if current staff can handle this approach, there is no guarantee that a new developer will also maintain it. (In the scenario where the previous one resigned from the job)

[@KurtBuhler]

This is true and an important consideration we also mention in the video/article! Nonetheless important to know the available options.

[@extraktAI]

Great!