Help! Dataset too big (using DirectQuery from SQL) - how to make a preview of XXX number of lines?

[parisrowe]

Hi all,

I am very VERY new to Power BI (downloaded it yesterday).

Running off a SQL server with an insane amount of data - too large to import. 

Looking to display a simple table visual eg;

Purchase Order # (from SQL table1), PO Date (table1), Line # (table2), product code (table2), serial number (table2), EDN number (table3)

(will also have customer code (T1), clinic (T1), PO status (T1), EDN receipt status (T3) etc)

For some reason, I can only Many-to-Many link these to eachother, using Purchase Order number (which appears in all 3 tables) as the Primary Key. 

Anyways - When I put this in a visual, after making the many-to-many links, it was too large to display (lines exceed 100,000).

I want to be able to automatically have the latest 1000 or so lines on display, but then be able to filter by purchase order number and seek an order which is older than this. Want to be able to filter by purchase order number, customer code, clinic, etc, and also date. Perhaps multiple filters at once - for example, Open Orders in the XXXX clinic, so my team can follow up on these. 

Is anyone able to please assist me? 

Thank you so kindly,

[parisrowe]

Dataset is 479,717 lines x 20 columns... 

[grantsamborn]

Hi

My first question is what is an INSANE amount of data?  Are you sure with the right data modelling that it could be handled by "Import"?

I've seen some VERY large data models mentioned on here that didn't need Direct Query.

Just asking.