Reports (PowerBI)
This page helps you setup the Reporting dashboards in PowerBI and walks you through the data that is displayed in them.
Head over to the Downloads section to get the latest dashboards
Note: these dashboards were built for the June 2020 Update (v2.82) of PowerBI Desktop. If you download a later version of PowerBI from Microsoft, you will asked to 'Upgrade'.
How do I setup the PowerBI files?
It's quite straightforward, for each of the PowerBI files, you must:
Open the .pbit file with PowerBI Desktop.
When you first open the .pbit file, you will be asked to enter Parameters.
The Parameters
1) PowerBI FilePath:
Here you can enter EITHER
the location of your Report Directory (that you specified in the Night Runner Settings setup). For example "C:_projects\Reports", OR
a path to a .txt file with multiple Report Directories listed (one on each row). For example "C:\Users\will\Desktop\report_directories.txt".
Please make sure that your comparison directory always ends in "\Reports\" This is necessary because that is currently the only way to curcumvent PowerBI's limitation of loading data from a single source file.
2) [ignore] Csv Transform:
Ignore this.
3) LoadNMostRecentReports:
This should be a whole number, which represents the number of reports you want to load into the dashboards. A high number means you can view more comparisons, but it may take longer to load. A low number will be very quick to load, but you can compare less reports. A balance should be chosen for you and your organization that fits your own requirements. 10 is a reasonable starting point.
Subsequent changes to the parameters
In the future if you want to change these parameters, go to the Home tab > arrow next to Transform Data > select Edit Parameters, as shown below:
At this point, you will only see data if you have run a Comparison (if in the Comparison dashboard), or if you have run a Push or Pull (if you are in the Push / Pull dashboards). If you're unsure how to do this - view the previous tutorial here.
Navigating the PowerBI dashboards
By default, Night Runner comes with two separate dashboards, one that displays all the Comparison data, and another that displays all the Push/ Pull data. But the layout of both files is the same. The layout is described visually below:
1 - Dashboard Title
Shows he dashboard title and a short summary of each of the visuals on this report page.
2 - Summary Tiles
we have included these four main Summary Tiles as a useful way of seeing how the data is currently being filtered (or not). Filters are set mainly in 7. If the data for more than one Project File is being shown,
3 - Reset Filters button
Ctrl and Click on this Button to reset all Filters back to the default (no filtering).
4 - Issues by Issue Category (State) Visual
This visual gives a visual overview of how many issues there are for each 'State' (see section 6 below for more on State).
Note: the bars you see in this visual are actually a 4-level hierarchy: ¬ State ¬¬ Class ¬¬¬ Category ¬¬¬¬ Family Make sure you have 'Drill-down' mode selected on this visual (activation is shown below, click on the Down arrow). This allows you to click on the bars, and 'drill-down' into the next level of the hierarchy to help you focus on the issues you care about.
To go back up the hierarchy, either click on the Up arrow (next to the Down arrow), or Ctrl+Click on the Reset Filters button in the bottom left of the dashboard.
5 - Timeline Visual
This visual show the ratio of issues highlighted in the Comparison process, for each Project File in the Comparison, for each Comparison (X-axis is a timeline, with each bar representing one Comparison). This can also be used to filter the Full Issue Table below.
6 - Full Results Table
This table should be used with the filters pane (or the visuals above) and shows the details of each issue found. The table columns have been explained below:
Date & Time - when the Comparison was run.
Project File Name - the Project File Name associated with this issue.
State - is a flag assigned to each issue. the main three States are:
Non-standard - when a 'thing' (e.g. a Type, Family, Material, as found in the Class column) is found in the Project File but not in the Type File.
Missing - when a 'thing' found in the Type File is not found in the Project File being checked.
Deviating - when the 'thing' is found in both, but are Deviating in some way (as indicated by the Name, ValueProjectFile & ValueTypeFile fields.
There are other states which are less important and are used to give you further information about the Comparison process (such as the states: Metadata, Monitored, Imported, Unpinned and more).
Class - a generic term for the 'thing' that the issue is about. This can be a Family, Type, Material, Shared Parameter, Appearance Asset, Object Style, Line Pattern, Fill Pattern, View, View Filter etc).
Category - Revit Category (if applicable)
Family - Revit Family (if applicable)
Name - Revit Parameter Name (if applicable)
Value - Revit Parameter Value (if applicable)
ValueProjectFile - Revit Parameter Value in Project File. This field will only be populated for 'Deviating' states.
ValueTypeFile - Revit Parameter Value in Type File. This field will only be populated for 'Deviating' states.
7 - Filters Pane
Use these filters to narrow down the amount of data that is displayed in the visualizations.
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