Desktop - strangely slow to open the formula bar for creating a new column or measure

[reubwork]

I have a report where it's taking 50-55secs to open up the formula bar to create a new column or measure, and then 50-55secs to commit the result. All the while I get the "working on it" pop-up window.

I'm using the Oct 2024 release, on Windows 11. 

The report is a little under 300Mb on disk, stored in pbip format. 

Does anyone have any ideas other than rebuilding it from scratch? It's quite peculiar. 

[reubwork · Accepted solution]

Turned out to be a calculated table that was using measures from a power bi dataset. 

Still not clear why clicking on New Measure should cause Power BI to re-evaluate the entire model. 

[v-tangjie-msft]

Hi @reubwork ,

1.Review your data model for any inefficiencies. Large tables, complex relationships, and calculated columns can slow down performance.

2.Ensure your machine has sufficient resources. Power BI can be resource-intensive, so having enough RAM and CPU power is crucial.

3.Close any unnecessary applications running in the background that might be consuming resources.

4.Using Tabular Editor allows you to add measures directly into the SAAS model for the PBI file. That seems to be an efficient method of skirting the "new measure" from within the PBI desktop file.

For more details, please refer:

Solved: Power BI Desktop - Performance Issues - Microsoft Fabric Community

Optimization guide for Power BI - Power BI | Microsoft Learn

Power BI Performance Optimization: Make Reports Run Up to 10X Faster

Best Regards,

Neeko Tang

If this post  helps, then please consider Accept it as the solution  to help the other members find it more quickly. 

[reubwork]

Thanks for the reply Neeko. 

It's model specific, not my machine. 

Obviously complex calculations/ relationships will make a model slow.

It's not clear why these things would cause this behaviour.

And yes, I know I can use Tabular Editor. That's a work around rather than a solution. 

[v-tangjie-msft]

Hi @reubwork ,

Have you not encountered this issue in previous versions? I think complex models and too many calculated columns or measures can cause performance issues with PBI Desktop, so the slowness issue occurs by design. Could you try using PBI Desktop in a virtual machine?

Best Regards,

Neeko Tang

If this post  helps, then please consider Accept it as the solution  to help the other members find it more quickly.

[reubwork]

"Have you not encountered this issue in previous versions?"
No. 

"I think complex models and too many calculated columns or measures can cause performance issues with PBI Desktop"
That doesn't address this performance issue. 

"Could you try using PBI Desktop in a virtual machine?"
No, it's not my machine that's the problem. My machine copes perfectly well with refreshing this model, for example, as well as working fine with larger and differently complex models. 

50-55 secs to open the formula bar for a new measure. The engine isn't doing anything.

Probably, as I already said below, the issue is too many calculated columns, or hitting some kind of threshold of calculated columns... 

... but it's really not clear why simply clicking on New Measure would cause any evaluation of the model.

[reubwork]

Same behaviour as here, perhaps... 

https://community.fabric.microsoft.com/t5/Desktop/The-PBI-file-gets-extremely-slow-after-creating-a-...