New Viewer Launch for Power BI BIM Dashboard Templates

A major viewer update for Frame Power BI templates

We have updated the viewer inside our Power BI BIM dashboard templates.

This launch is focused on the parts of the experience teams feel every day: moving between views faster, working more smoothly with federated models, improving interaction clarity, and making the viewer state easier to preserve between sessions.

For teams using Frame as the visual layer inside Power BI, this is not just a cosmetic update. It changes how quickly users can inspect a model, switch contexts, and keep the viewer aligned with the way they actually review data.

Why this update matters

When a Power BI report includes BIM geometry, the viewer becomes the place where data turns into context. If that experience feels slow, rigid, or disconnected from the model structure, the whole dashboard becomes harder to use.

That is why this release focused on a practical set of improvements:

• Better performance when changing between views.
• Better support for federated models.
• Better visual feedback in 2D selections.
• More flexible interaction modes.
• Cleaner and more usable toolbars.
• A new federated panel browser for model-by-model view switching.
• Better handling of saved cameras, states, and preferences.

Taken together, these changes make the viewer feel more stable and much more usable inside day-to-day Power BI workflows.

Quick walkthrough

Here is a short walkthrough showing the updated viewer in action, including faster view changes, federated model browsing, new interaction modes, updated toolbars, and improved saved states.

Faster movement between views

One of the biggest improvements in this release is performance when changing between views.

Users often move between saved views, filtered states, sheet contexts, and different report pages while investigating a coordination question. If the viewer hesitates every time that happens, the analysis slows down with it.

With this update, changing views is more responsive, which helps in practical scenarios such as:

• Weekly coordination meetings where multiple view states are reviewed quickly.
• Drill-through workflows where users move from a summary page to model detail.
• QA sessions that compare several saved viewpoints in sequence.
• Dashboard demos where the visual context needs to keep up with the narrative.

The result is a viewer that better matches the pace of an analytics session instead of feeling like a separate tool embedded inside the report.

Better loading for federated models

Federated models are increasingly central to how teams coordinate projects, so viewer performance and usability in that context matter more than ever.

This launch includes improvements for loading federated models, making it easier to inspect combined project contexts inside Power BI templates. That is important for users who need to review architecture, structure, and MEP together rather than jumping between isolated models.

The viewer now supports federated workflows more comfortably, which makes it a better fit for:

• Cross-discipline issue review.
• Coordination dashboards built from federated ACC views.
• Multi-model asset inspection.
• Reports where understanding adjacency and context is essential.

Better 2D selection colors

We also improved 2D selection colors.

This is a small detail with a real usability impact. In sheets and drawing contexts, selection feedback needs to be obvious. If users cannot immediately see what was selected, the dashboard becomes slower to trust and harder to navigate.

With clearer 2D selection coloring, users can inspect sheets more confidently, especially when:

• Moving between 3D and 2D views.
• Reviewing filtered selections from Power BI visuals.
• Validating a specific element or group on a sheet.
• Presenting results to users who are more comfortable reading 2D documents.

New interaction modes for better inspection

This release also adds multiple interaction modes, giving users more control over how they inspect the model inside a report.

The new modes include:

• X-Ray
• Zoom to selection
• Highlight only

These interaction modes make the viewer more adaptable to the task at hand.

For example:

• X-Ray helps reveal a selected set without completely losing surrounding context.
• Zoom to selection makes it faster to move directly to the relevant area of the model.
• Highlight only gives a cleaner, presentation-friendly way to emphasize selected elements without changing the full view state too aggressively.

Instead of forcing one inspection pattern on every user, the viewer now allows different review styles depending on the meeting, report page, or question being asked.

Improved toolbars and UI flow

We also introduced new toolbars with a stronger focus on overall UI and UX.

The purpose here was not to add controls for the sake of it. It was to make the viewer easier to read and easier to operate during real dashboard sessions.

Better toolbar design matters because the viewer is often used by a mixed group: some users know BIM tools well, others mainly live in Power BI, Excel, or project management workflows. The interface needs to support both.

With the updated toolbars, the viewer is more approachable while keeping the advanced functionality available when needed.

New federated panel browser

One of the most useful additions in this launch is the federated panel browser.

This panel makes it easier to work through federated views by allowing users to switch between views for each model inside the federated setup. That is important because federation should not flatten all models into one undifferentiated experience. Users still need a clear way to move between the different view contexts that belong to each child model.

The federated panel browser helps bridge that gap:

• You can stay inside the federated workflow.
• You can move across model-specific views more intentionally.
• You can inspect the project with better awareness of which model and view you are working in.

This is especially useful for teams reviewing complex, multi-model dashboards where clarity of context matters as much as raw geometry access.

Better saving of camera, states, and preferences

We also improved how the viewer handles saved camera positions, states, and preferences.

This matters more than it may seem. In recurring review workflows, a saved view is not just a convenience. It is part of how the team communicates. A camera angle, visibility setup, or preferred interaction state often becomes the shared reference point for a meeting, a handoff, or a presentation.

With improved state saving, it becomes easier to keep that experience consistent, which supports:

• Repeated dashboard reviews across project milestones.
• Stakeholder presentations that need predictable visual states.
• Team preferences that should persist across sessions.
• Faster return to previously prepared viewpoints.

What this means for template users

This viewer launch is especially important for teams using Frame Power BI BIM dashboard templates because the viewer is not a separate add-on. It is part of the day-to-day reporting workflow.

Better viewer behavior means the templates themselves become more useful:

• Reports are easier to navigate.
• Federated review becomes more practical.
• Selections are easier to understand in both 3D and 2D.
• Saved states become more dependable for repeated use.

This is the kind of release that improves the usability of every template that depends on the viewer.

Final thought

Power BI BIM dashboards are only as effective as the viewer experience inside them.

This updated Frame viewer makes it easier to move through federated contexts, inspect selections, switch views, and preserve the exact states teams rely on for repeated reviews. That means less friction in the dashboard and more focus on the model insights that matter.

If you want more background on the viewer and template workflows, see our custom Power BI viewer overview and our Power BI template guide for Autodesk and Revit teams. If you want to see the updated viewer with your own models, contact us.