Share your thoughts on visual calculations (preview)

[jeroenterheerdt]

Hit "Reply" and let us know what you think of visual calculations! To learn more about this feature, please visit the blog post or our documentation.

Here are some areas that we'd like to hear about in particular:

• errors / issues you are experiencing
• functionality that is missing / does not work as you expected that is not listed as limitations in our documentation.
• suggestions on governance capabilities
• sorting behavior of visual and visual matrix

Thanks and we look forward to hearing your feedback!

[muturuf]

Hey Jay - as an ardent follower of yours; here is what I'd like to share.

In embedded power bi reports A SKUs (embedded in the web portal)

in the edit mode, when I select visual calculations, the Calculations bar does not show and it just hangs. In the field section it is added as hidden but I can't do much with it.

Visual calculations offer an incredible opportunity in our use case because it used to be that if any of the customers wants to a custom calculation it would always have to be that they would submit a request and then that measure would have to be added and they'd have to wait until the next deployment typically weeks away. So we are genuinely excited about Visual Calcs but only if they work in web-portal (A SKU) embedded dashboards 🙂

Thanks in advance.

[jeroenterheerdt]

Hi @muturuf thanks for checking in and asking this question. Visual calculations do not support embedded today unfortunately so this behavior is as expected at the moment. I would love to learn more about what you're trying to do though to help prioritize this. Can you send me a DM?

[andrew_k]

Hi Jay

I saw your Visual Cals presentation during the 'Power BI and Fabric Global summit', which brought me here. 
My use case is very simple. 
I have a Pro licence and and building personal Power BI reports so that I can showcase them on an online portfolio.
I use embedded so was surprised when my visual calc wasn't displaying.

I have since changed this but was interested if there was anything in the future pipeline to make them supported.

Kind regards, Andrew

[jeroenterheerdt]

Hi Andrew, thanks for checking in! Embedded is not supported (it's listed on the limitations): https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/power-bi/transform-model/desktop-visual-calculations-overview#cons...
but will be in the future! Would love to hear how you've worked around it.

[andrew_k]

Hi @jeroenterheerdt 

Sorry for the delay in my response.
I managed to track down my report and in my case I had a very simple calc which I created as a visual calculation. Screen shot below.
To resolve the issue, I just copied and created it as a normal measure and added it to my visual.
I suspect that I only did it as a visual calculation to begin with to experiment and learn. So for me, it was no big deal to change it.

Regards, Andrew

[jeroenterheerdt]

ok, thanks for letting me know!

[than121711]

Matrix table with visual calculations does not display / throws an error when the dashboard is published to the web.

[jeroenterheerdt]

that is to be expected, since it's clearly listed on our limitations (https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/power-bi/transform-model/desktop-visual-calculations-overview#cons... "You can't use the Publish to web functionality with reports that use visual calculations or hidden fields."

[mjc543]

Visual calculations and field parameters don't see to be very compatible with one another. I can create a visual calculation, but when I click 'Return to report' and try to go back into visual calculation edit mode, it's grayed out and I can't do anything else with it.

[jeroenterheerdt]

which version of Power BI Desktop are you using? We enabled the use of field parameters in the October release, so please confirm you are using at least that version.

[mjc543]

I am using the November 2024 release. 2.138.782.0 64-bit. I think that while field parameters were enabled last month, there's still some bugs that need to be worked out. Also worth mentioning in the affected line chart visual I am using a pair of field parameters on the Y-axis; 1 for the current value of the selected measure (with month/year on rows), and 1 for the previous value of the selected measure (same period last year).

[jeroenterheerdt]

can you share a screenshot please?

[mjc543]

Well, as luck would have it I've already closed the file, and when I reopened it, the problem went away. If I happens again I will try to capture it and share (along with steps to reproduce the error, if possible). Thanks for the quick replies!

[rubenjoosen]

Hi

The combination of dimensional fieldparameters and visual calculations seema to look fine at first sight. 
It looks like its not possible with field parameters that contain a list of measures, because in the visual calculation you hardcode the current measure.

Is it possible someway or is it coming later to include the "current selected measure" and use it in the visual calculation. 
Similar to the Selectedmeasure() function in calculation groups. 

Would be quite powerful i would imagine. 

[jeroenterheerdt]

hi @rubenjoosen thanks for the feedback. You are absolutely right and we are thinking about how to resolve this, but then not just for visual calculations but for measures the same. It will take a while though, it's not easy.

[wcarter]

I was wondering, is there any update on when conditional formatting will be available to use with Visual Calculations? I have a table with conditional formatting that is pretty memory intensive and often fails to render on the PBI service, being able to apply that formatting to the completed calculation instead would be a massive boon to report performance for me.

[jeroenterheerdt]

hello @wcarter thanks for the feedback! Conditional formatting is on it's way, hopefully by the end of the year or early next year!

[mattd1]

Tried to use Vis Calc on a matrix where I had switched axis. I'm running Version: 2.137.952.0 64-bit (October 2024)

This worked fine in one PBI file but then copy paste the visual with the calc to another (pointing at same semantic model) went all screwy. If I remove the calc the switched matrix looks fine. If I add the calc back it doesn't ... 

Note the columns are a Calculation Group table.

Above is visual without calculation. If I now add a subtraction of Port - Bench ... it goes like this:

The calculation is working. This file is a PBIP. I have tried copying to another PBIX too ...

Here in another (PBIX) file - all working (note I called the field __ in this one rather than "Relative" as above):

When I copy paste this to a brand new unsaved file:

It's all flattened out. If I remove the Calculation I get this:

Help?

[jeroenterheerdt]

@mattd1what's the calculation you added? It's unclear to me in the screenshots which calculation you are adding. Please post the DAX.

[mattd1]

I mentioned subtraction of Port - Bench in the note as I didn't think the calc was relevant (it works in one file but not in another). But for info:

[Portfolio (EUR)] - [Benchmark (EUR)]