This post contains an overview of Power BI External tools that add additional functionality to Power BI Desktop:
| Power BI External Tool Name | Developer | Key Features | Licensing Model | Download |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Acterys Power BI Sync | Acterys | Plan and write back enable Power BI models Synchronization with SQL Server | Commercial | Power BI Sync |
| Acterys Modeller | Acterys | Automated data warehouse, Power BI model and reports generation for ERP and SaaS solutions Creation and editing of data warehouse models | Commercial | Acterys Modeller |
| ALM Toolkit | Christian Wade | Application Lifecycle Managment for SSAS models | Free | ALM toolkit |
| Business Ops | PowerBi.tooltips | Addition of external tools | Free | Business Ops |
| DAX Studio | Darren Gosbell | Executing and analyzing DAX queries against Microsoft Tabular models | Free | DAX Studio |
| Metadata Translator | Various | Metadata management | Free | Meta Data Translator |
| Power BI Helper | Radacad, Reza Rad | Various tools to improve development process | Free | Power BI Helper |
| Power BI Side Tools | Didier Terrien | DAX Debugger Export to Excel Transfer DAX/M | Free | Power BI Sidetools |
| Tabular Editor | Daniel Otykier / Kapacity | Tabular model development Scripting Engine | Free/Commercial Version 3 | Tabular Editor |
If you would like to add your tool please send us a message via the contact page: Add Your Power BI External Tool
Description of Power BI External Tools
Acterys Modeller
The Acterys Modeller is cloud based service (with on-premise installation option) that allows enables business users to automatically create optimal analysis models (star schema data warehouse) from a variety to ERP. accounting and SaaS systems. The created models are write and planning enabled and can be edited and extended as needed by business users e.g. for adding new products/attributes, account mappings, new scenarios etc. With the new Instant Link technology users can also easily add existing data warehouse components that can then be edited in the Modeller without affecting the source tables.
Acterys Power BI Sync
Acterys Power BI Sync a Windows application (and soon also available as a cloud service in the Acterys Modeller) that is integrated as an external Power BI tool. Power BI Sync enables you to synchronize Power BI tables including calculated columns etc. with a SQL Server database either as standard staging tables or as a write-back and planning enabled Acterys data warehouse star schema. With the later format users can add unparalleled planning features from top down data entry, driver based planning and a variety of corporate performance management features (FX handling statutory consolidation, etc.) to any data model added in Power BI with 600+ connectors. It also enables users to easily edit these tables in the web browser (Acterys Modeller), in Power BI (8 AppSource listed Power BI custom visuals) as well as in an Excel add-in that again supports all Acterys editing and planning features.
Download a trial version of Acterys Power BI Sync here: Acterys Power BI Sync
ALM Toolkit
ALM Toolkit is a free and open-source tool to manage Microsoft Power BI datasets: Database compare, Code merging, Easy deployment, Source-control integration, Reuse definitions, Self-service to corporate BI.
It is based on the source code of BISM Normalizer, which provides similar features for Tabular models.
Download a the free ALM toolkit version here: Home Page – ALM Toolkit (alm-toolkit.com)
Business Ops
Business Ops tool helps you to make the addition of external tools in Power BI Desktop easier. Download this installer and you can add a variety of External Tools directly into Power BI Desktop: Business Ops – (powerbi.tips)
DAX Studio
- DAX Studio enables the execution and analysis of DAX queries against Microsoft Tabular (Analysis Service Tabular /Power BI) models. It includes:
- Automated DAX formatting improvements and highlighting
- Analysis of server timings
- Swapping the delimiter style
Kapacity Tabular Editor
Tabular Editor provides an intuitive hierarchical view of every object in a tabular model (Analysis Service Tabular and Power BI). It enabkles editing Columns, Measures and Hierarchies are arranged in Display Folders. Users can edit properties of one or more objects, by (multi)selecting them in the tree. The new version 3 provides a DAX Editor with syntax highlighting that lets you easily edit the expressions of Measures, Calculated Columns and Calculated Tables.
Metadata Translator
Metadata Translator helps to streamline the localization of Power BI data models. The tool can automatically translate the captions, descriptions, and display folder names of tables, columns, measures, and hierarchies by using the machine translation technology of Azure Cognitive Services. It also lets you export and import translations via Comma Separated Values (.csv) files for convenient bulk editing in Excel or a localization tool.
You can download the free open source version of Metadata Translator here: Analysis-Services/MetadataTranslator at master · microsoft/Analysis-Services · GitHub
Power BI Helper
BI Helper includes a set of features to improve the development process in Power BI Desktop:
- Detecting the storage mode of tables (DirectQuery, Dual, Import)
- Detecting the connection mode of the file (Import, DirectQuery, Live Connection, Composite/Mixed)
- Report level measures
- Compare two files based on their report level measures
- Analyzing the visualization just by selecting the model
The free version of Power BI Helper can be downloaded here: Power BI Helper – RADACAD
Power BI Sidetools
Power BI Sidetools is a free Power BI external tool intended to increase productivity during reports development in Power BI desktop. You can download Sidetools from here: Power BI Sidetools
