Now, before anyone has a chance to comment and say “Paul, what the are thinking? Visual Studio is an essential tool and there are certain things that you can’t do with out it!”, I agree and will continue to use SSDT for a few key features. However, at some point I the life of a project it just makes more sense to transition the data model to an enterprise-scale effort. It’s faster, more convenient and just easier than SSDT. I prefer to use Desktop to perform model design. It’s a joy to use compared with my early experiences using SSDT for tabular model design. Not only does Power BI Desktop include a lot of great features, it is stable and streamlined.
The Tabular designer was fragile to put it mildly.Įnter Power BI… Initially intended for self-service data model and report design, Power BI Desktop has quickly grown into a robust and full-featured BI design tool. In 2012 when Microsoft began the transition from on-disk cubes to in-memory SSAS Tabular models, I used SQL Server Data Tools (SSDT) to create tabular models. Back in 2005, I used the Business Intelligence Development Studio (BIDS) Visual Studio add-in for SSIS, SSRS and SSAS projects to develop BI solutions with multidimensional cubes. For several years, Visual Studio has been my go-to tool for designing semantic data models used for Business Intelligent reporting.
