Direct Lake Semantic Model: Columns renamed using Tabular Editor revert to original column names

[JustinHylton]

In a Direct Lake Semantic Model connected to a Lakehouse, columns renamed in the service behave as expected, but columns renamed using Tabular Editor 2 revert to their original name after certain actions.

To reproduce:

1. Create a Direct Lake Semantic Model connected to a Lakehouse.
2. Rename one of the model’s columns from the service / web interface.
3. Rename a different model column from Tabular Editor and save the changes.
4. Verify from the service that the Tabular Editor changes did get saved to the model.
5. Click on Edit Tables, make no changes, click Confirm.
6. After the model reconnects to the underlying tables, check the column names again.

At this point, the columns renamed in the service are still renamed, but the columns renamed in Tabular Editor have reverted to their original name.

1) Create a Direct Lake Semantic Model connected to a Lakehouse.

2) Rename some of the model’s columns from the service / web interface.

3) Rename a different model column from Tabular Editor and save the changes.

4) Verify from the service that the Tabular Editor changes did get saved to the model.

5) Click on Edit Tables, make no changes, click Confirm.

6) After the model reconnects to the underlying tables, check the column names again.

[JustinHylton]

I just confirmed if you rename a column from web first, then rename it some more from TE, then do the "Edit Tables" step, the name does not revert. Changes made in TE stick if that column has been changed in the service first. There must be a background meta flag that TE doesn't set properly, but the service does. 

[Anonymous]

Hi @JustinHylton ,

Thanks for the exhaustive reproduction process. By checking the documentation for Tabular Editor, I found that this feature may require a paid version of Tabular Editor 3.x to be supported. You can further confirm this with Tabular Editor officials.

Tabular Editor 3 -- Contact us

Using Tabular Editor in Microsoft Fabric – Tabular Editor Blog

Learn about Direct Lake in Power BI and Microsoft Fabric - Microsoft Fabric | Microsoft Learn

A limitation is mentioned here. But the restriction of clicking to jump to the official documentation seems to have been removed.

Fabric Direct Lake with Tabular Editor – Part 2: Creation – Tabular Editor Blog

And unable to find documentation related to Direct Lake Semantic Model under Tabular Editor 2.x.

Hope these help.

Best Regards,
Gao
Community Support Team

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[JustinHylton]

Thank you. Your research is helpful. 

I still find it odd that the changes do get pushed to the service and appear to work, but later get reverted. Or, if you rename the column once in the service, you can rename it successfully in Tabular Editor. I wonder if the fabric developers know of this issue. It seems like either Tabular Editor needs to set a flag variable, or the Fabric team needs to check for renamed columns even if that variable is not set.  

Thanks again.