Is it possible to reuse a semantic model in my project created on Power BI desktop?

[MiaSunny]

Hi, We have a team processing some HR related data such as team members' info and timesheets, and they publish the data to a workspace as a dashborad and a semantic model. This will be the whole company workload data and only open to the management, I have the permission to this workspace and data model. Now we got a request from one dept to get only the dept data from the workload data modal , and compare with some other data from database and flat files to make another smaller dashboard only for their dept and share in their workspace. I used the get data -- from semantic model tool on my desktop version and built everything with it, and on publishing I got error msg below, my data didn't work through with it since the 2 workspace cannot share the same permission setting.

We cannot set the permission of the first workspace open to more people, plans we tried could be 1 download the workload data from it and save to sharepoint and use that as the data source, could work but will need some manual work on refreshing it; 2 copy and paste all the processing steps of the workload data onto the dept dashboard in power query, filter the dept data only, redo the steps and make the data again and use it, this should work but it will take a long time to process. We would like to know if there is a better plan to reuse the workload data model directly? Or some settings could help with this? Thank you!

[Shai_Karmani · Accepted solution]

You can grant Build permission on the semantic model alone, without giving anyone access to the source workspace. In the source workspace, open the semantic model details page, go to "Manage permissions", and grant "Build" to the dept users or a security group.

With that in place, the live-connected or composite report you publish in their workspace will work for them.

If they also need to see only their dept's data, you can build a composite model in Desktop (live connect to the source model, then "Make changes to this model" to add filters or local tables). Consumers still only need Build on the source model.

If this works for you, kindly mark it as the solution and give a thumbs up.

Best,
Shai Karmani

Let's connect in LinkedIn

[MiaSunny]

Hi Shai, thank you for the help! never know that before and i would like to know more about the details: 

when adding the "Build" permission to dept user on the whole workload semantic model, do i have to grant permission to the whole workspace of their department, e.g. if there are 20 members in the dept, do i have to add all of them in to avoid the error? the 20 members are all in the workspace but only one director and 2 managers need the data, then should i create another workspace only for the 3 people or should i grant permission for everyone? 

for the second step, I don't see the "Make changes to this model" option in my desktop version and here is my modeling tab, my build is on Apr 2026, is it something new after that? Now i cannot make a relationship on the live one with connect my local files and date table. 

Tested the permission setting on semantic model: after granting the build permission and publishing I got errors like this on the workspace, but no pop up error msg like the screenshot in my first post. 

Thank you! 

[Shai_Karmani]

Hey...

For the Permissions: only grant Build to the 3 people who actually need it, not all 20. Better to make an Entra security group and grant to the group.

The error in your screenshot isn't a permissions thing. "Refresh token expired" and "on premise service issue" mean the source  model's gateway creds are broken, nothing to do with your setup. re-enter creds on the semantic model (Settings --> Data source credentials) and check the on-prem gateway is online. Once you re-auth, it will work.

If this works for you, kindly mark it as the solution and give a thumbs up.

Best,
Shai Karmani

Let's connect in LinkedIn

[MiaSunny]

That make sense and really helpful to me. My source model is a complicated one and always need some manual steps and no gateway setup on it, that's also the reason I don't want to remake it. Then i got the logic for that: it will use the creds to refresh the original data source on refreshing.

Thank you again for all the help!  

[Shai_Karmani]

Glad to hear that helped!