dHi Power BI team, I’d like to propose a small but meaningful improvement to the Model View interface — one that would help modellers avoid incorrect assumptions and improve clarity for both new and experienced users. In Power BI, many column, table, and relationship properties fall into two very different categories: Binding properties These affect the VertiPaq engine, storage, compression, and model validity. Examples: data type, relationship cardinality, cross-filter direction. Metadata properties These describe intent, assist AI/Q&A, or improve documentation and usability, but do not enforce constraints. Examples: description, synonyms, display folder, “Is nullable”, key column, row label. The challenge is that the interface currently presents both categories in the same visual style, using the same terminology that in other systems (especially SQL) implies strict enforcement. This can lead to incorrect assumptions, especially for users with a relational modelling background. A small UI distinction — even something as simple as grouping, icons, or a visual separator — would make it immediately clear which properties are enforced by the engine and which are descriptive metadata. This would help: prevent misunderstandings for SQL‑trained users reduce cognitive friction when learning the model view clarify the role of semantic metadata in AI‑assisted features improve the teaching and onboarding experience for new modellers Power BI’s modelling layer is incredibly powerful, and this distinction would make it even more intuitive and transparent. Personal note: I only discovered this distinction after a long discussion with CoPilot while writing a course. Someone coming from an SQL background, in a normal work situation, might see something like “Is nullable: true/false” and naturally assume it’s an enforced constraint. Power BI’s job is to report on data in the best shape we can get it into — not to enforce transactional rules — but the UI wording makes it very easy to assume otherwise. A clearer separation of metadata vs binding properties would help users understand what Power BI is actually doing versus what it’s simply describing. Kind regards, John
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