How can I append two existing semantic models into a single table?

[dmarchant]

Greetings,

I have two existing semantic models of financial data with different refresh schedules. Basically, one is data from the last 1-2 years and is refreshed hourly, and the other one is data from older years and only refreshed daily. I need to be able to create a report utilizing the data from both as a single table. Because I have to switch my new report to Direct Query to query both semantic models, I lose the append option in Power Query Editor. I've tried to create a calculated table in DAX with the UNION function, but I receive an error that the query uses more memory than the configured limit.

Is there any other way to append/union data from two existing semantic models into one table? Thank you!

[lbendlin]

Why do you want to append them?  What visuals are you planning to use the data in, and how?

[dmarchant]

Our reporting would span multiple fiscal years, mostly revenue and expense comparisons. Separating the data in the first place is really to control the refreshes, as the most recent fiscal years would need updated more often. Older fiscal years might still need updates, but less frequently, and the volume of data is significant enough that we wouldn't want to refresh it more than we need.

[lbendlin · Accepted solution]

You can do selective refresh inside a semantic model, down to the partition level.  Or you could consider using dataflows that can have their own refresh cadence.