tool choice to create SSAS tabular cube - Power BI Desktop vs Visual Studio

[Anonymous]

I am trying to determine the pros and cons of what tool to use to create an SSAS tabular cube.  I am considering Power BI Desktop and Visual Studio.

For reference, to create a cube in Power BI Desktop, I create a normal "report" (pbix file) as usual, but without any visuals.  (So, it has the data model and measures defined.)  I then publish this "report" to a workspace, and other "real" reports consume from the dataset / cube (in a Live connection) that it generates.

What are the pros and cons of creating tabular cubes in Power BI Desktop versus in Visual Studio (beyond the obvious things, such as tool availability / familiarity)?  And, is there a best practice regarding this tool selection (e.g., go with Visual Studio unless necessary)?

[parry2k]

Agreed with @bcdobbs . I assume Tabular Editor as an internal part of the Power BI and always miss to point that out since I live in TE most of the time. Thanks for bringing that out @bcdobbs 

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[bcdobbs]

I think alot depends on the size and complexity of your model.

I generally find Power Bi is a very rapid way of starting things off. I then publish an initial version.

At that point I switch to Tabular Editor but VS would also work which I find easier to use for on going maintenance without having to constantly republish from Power Bi (work via XLMA end point).

I see two main advantages in that approach:

1) Easier model maintenance.

2) Tabular and VS expose model.bim which is JSON and plays nicely with GIT.

[parry2k]

@Anonymous I only use Power BI regardless of license Pro or Premium.

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[parry2k]

@Anonymous I guess this will help Power BI as a superset of Azure Analysis Services | Microsoft Power BI Blog | Microsoft Power BI

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[Anonymous]

@parry2k 

Thanks for the link.  That was very helpful.  Is it safe to say that, if you use Power BI shared capacity, then use AAS (or SSAS) for the cube creation, but if you use Power BI Premium, then use Power BI?

Also, I found this link:

Choosing to Model in Power BI vs SSAS Tabular (pragmaticworks.com)

[bcdobbs]

I think you might be confusing some of your terminology.

Power Bi/VS/Tabular Editor all work on tabular models. It's just a choice of which interface you like (some expose more than others).

[Anonymous]

@bcdobbs I understand that all of those tools work on tabular models.  I was just wondering what the pros / cons for each of them are (for creating / maintaining a tabular model).

@parry2k From the link that you gave, it seems that Power BI Premium (not Power BI shared capacity) includes all of the functionality of AAS (and more).  So, from a feature perspective, it would make sense to use Power BI Desktop (or probably Tabular Editor, since it's more feature-rich) for the cube creation if you use Power BI Premium.  Conversely, if you just have shared capacity, then it would make sense to use AAS, SSAS, or Tabular Editor.

[Anonymous]

By the way, as an alternative to Visual Studio or Tabular Editor for exposing files to put under source control (e.g., the .bim file), you could use Power BI Sidetools or just change the extension on the .pbix / .pbit file to .zip (which exposes all of the underyling files).

[bcdobbs]

Thanks @Anonymous . I never got on well with the intermediate steps to make git work which is probably why I have a preference for tabular editor! (My inherent laziness!)

In terms of shared capacity vs premium I'm not sure there is any difference in terms of what is supported by the tabular model aspect of it. I've never used it but I'm fairly sure shared capacity still exposes the xlma end point at which point what is supported by the tabular model will be the same. If you connect to your shared capacity xlma end point with ssms it should tell you what the max compatibility level it support is which we can then confirm from.

The only other thing that popped into my head was what compatibility level visual studio now supports for tabular models. Haven't used latest version but 2019 community didn't support 1500+ range last time I looked which was another driver for tabular editor.