With TMDL view you get full control and visibility over your semantic model with a modern code-first editing experience for Power BI semantic models using the human-friendly Tabular Model Definition Language (TMDL) modeling language.
Since its preview in January 2025, TMDL view has received several key enhancements:
- Code editor improvements: Now includes syntax highlighting for DAX and Power Query, tooltips, formatting, and code actions – experience similar to TMDL Visual Studio Code extension.
- TMDL diff view: Review changes before applying them with the new diff experience.
- Usability upgrades: Features like drag-and-drop for sections make editing easier and more intuitive.
- Increased robustness: Power BI Desktop is now ‘hardened’ to support opening and editing any semantic model.
Learn all about these features in the Work with TMDL view in Power BI Desktop documentation and the Deep dive into TMDL view for Power BI Desktop (Preview) blog post.
You might be wondering: what do we mean by ‘Power BI Desktop is now hardened‘?
In simple terms, hardening means that Power BI tools – like Power BI Desktop – no longer assume they are the only tools editing a semantic model. Instead, they now support collaborative editing scenarios with external tools, code file edits or AI.
The TMDL view team has done an outstanding job extending Power BI hardening. As a result, Power BI Desktop now supports a wider range of semantic model configurations, including:
- Custom table partitions
- Provider data sources
- Semantic model columns with different names from data sources
- … and more
Beyond these capabilities, the hardening work also unlocked two major Power BI features:
- The ability to download XMLA-altered semantic models as PBIX files.
- Full support for external tools to perform any write operation on the semantic model running in Power BI Desktop.
These enhancements make Power BI Desktop more flexible and resilient for advanced modeling scenarios – whether you’re working within Power BI tools, using external tools, writing code directly, or leveraging generative AI workflows.
What’s next?
- Continue enhancing the TMDL language code editor experience.
- Bring TMDL view experience to the Power BI service, allowing you to easily use TMDL scripts against published semantic models.