How to set up the Power BI connector

As a BIM manager or BIM coordinator it is crucial to have a grip on your project. Yet in practice, multiple separate worksheets (often Excel spreadsheets) are commonly used to exchange issues. This is why worksheets don’t work. Microsoft Power BI is a free business intelligence tool that provides users the possibility to analyze, visualize and share data. Power BI’s user interface is intuitive for users and is familiar with Excel.

Connect to Power BI in seconds, without coding!

The connector makes it easy to connect without any coding. So, you can start in-depth analyzing your BIMcollab data in seconds. The only thing you need is a private BIMcollab Cloud and the free connector, which can be downloaded here.

Creating a Power BI connection

Here is how you connect the Microsoft Power BI with BIMcollab Cloud in just a few simple steps:

Step 1

Copy the BIMcollab.mez file to the following Windows folder: Documents\Power BI Desktop\Custom Connectors

Step 2

Start Power BI Desktop and go to File > Options and settings > Options > Security and enable “Allow any extension to load without validation or warning”. Close Power BI Desktop and start it again.

Step 3

From the home screen you can now click the Get Data button in Power BI Desktop and look under Online Services. Select “BIMcollab (Beta)” and press the Connect button to continue and fill in your BIMcollab cloud url.

Note: Until the connector is certified by Microsoft the connector is marked a Beta. More information about using custom connectors can be found here.

Step 4

Press the Sign in button to go to the BIMcollab login screen and fill in your e-mail address and password of your BIMcollab account and press the Log in button. This allows Power BI to use the BIMcollab API services.

That’s it!

Once logged in you can click Connect to load the list of projects with their available resources. Tick the checkboxes of all items you want to use in Power BI and then click Load to start downloading the data.