Frequently asked questions

A custom visual for Microsoft Power BI. It draws each warehouse location as a bin from its coordinates and colors it by a numeric measure, so you can see where inventory, activity, or exceptions are concentrated. You can explore the warehouse in 3D or as a flat 2D plan, and it responds to the filters and slicers in your report.

In Power BI, open Get more visuals from the Visualizations pane, search for Unclocked 3D Heatmap, and add it. You can also install it from its Microsoft Marketplace listing. The how-to guide walks through setup.

Yes. Download the sample report (5,000 locations) and open it in Power BI Desktop, or build your own view from the sample CSV (2,208 locations) using the sample setup guide.

Yes. Reports built in Power BI Desktop work the same way when published to the Power BI service. Licensing is checked differently in a few environments; see Plans and licensing.

One row per warehouse location, with a unique Location ID, numeric X Coordinate and Y Coordinate, and a numeric measure in Heat Value. Optional fields add a Z Coordinate for height, bin width, length, and height, up to three category filters, tooltip measures, threshold measures, and an exception score. See the field reference.

No. Version 1.1.0.5 reads the coordinates from your Power BI model. If your layout only exists in an AutoCAD drawing, our warehouse mapping service can prepare a coordinate CSV for you.

Any unit works, such as inches, feet, centimeters, or millimeters, as long as coordinates and bin sizes use the same one. X and Y mark the starting corner of each bin's footprint, and Z is its base height. Width extends from X, length from Y, and height upward from Z. The visual centers the layout automatically, so coordinates don't need to start at zero, and negative values are fine.

Any numeric measure that can be evaluated per location, such as on-hand quantity, picks, utilization, days on hand, dwell time, shortage quantity, or an exception count. Use a measure rather than a column when the value should respond to report filters.

Power BI leaves out rows where every measure is blank. Right-click Location ID in the visual's Build pane and turn on Show items with no data. If some locations are still missing, turn it on for the coordinate and size fields too.

The visual keeps the first row for that ID and lists the duplicate IDs in a warning, so you can fix them in your data. Give every physical location its own ID, for example by including the warehouse or building in it.

Bins use the default width, length, and height from Format visual → Bins. The defaults also apply to any blank, zero, or negative size in your data.

Yes. The warehouse and its colors follow the report's filters and slicers. Clicking a bin can stay inside the visual, use Power BI selection so other visuals respond, or filter the report by that location; choose this in Format visual → Interaction → Bin click behavior. Right-click a bin for the Power BI context menu, including drillthrough set up by the report author.

Type part of a Location ID in the Search location box and choose a suggestion or press Enter. The visual focuses the camera on that location and selects it.

Yes. Add up to three fields to Category Filter 1–3, such as aisle, level, zone, or location type. Each appears as a dropdown in the visual's menu. Locations that don't match can be dimmed, to keep their place in the layout, or hidden.

Yes. Choose Mode → 2D in the menu for a flat plan you can pan, zoom, and rotate in 90° steps. Where several levels share a footprint, the highest one shows on top, so filter to one level when you need level-by-level analysis.

Yes. Save the current camera as the report's default view, and use the P1, P2, and P3 presets for three more. Click an empty preset to save, click a saved one to return to it, and Shift-click to replace it. Save the report afterwards to keep the views.

Yes. Turn on Format visual → Exceptions → Show exception finder to list locations at or above a value, at or below a value, zero, or blank, or to rank a positive DAX exception score. Select a result for its details, then Focus in 3D to frame it.

Yes. Set Heat scale → Threshold source to Measures and bind DAX measures to the Low, Medium, High, and Critical threshold fields. Each must return the same number for every location. Otherwise the thresholds are the manual values you set in the Format pane.

Yes. In Format visual → Scene, turn on the floor image and paste the image as a PNG, JPEG, or WebP data URL. Links to images on other sites aren't supported. Set the floor origin, width, and length to match your coordinates so the drawing lines up with the bins.

Yes. Choose Neutral light, Neutral dark, or Classic purple in Format visual → Scene → UI theme. The visual also follows Power BI's high-contrast themes and supports keyboard focus.

Everything except render more than 2,500 bins. Every feature on this page is available on Free. For a larger warehouse, filter the report to one area at a time or use Professional.

It removes the 2,500-bin limit. The report author then sets the scene size with Max displayed bins, up to 100,000. Professional is licensed per user through Microsoft Marketplace; see plans and pricing.

Each person who needs to see more than 2,500 bins needs an assigned Professional license, including report viewers. Buying a license for the report author doesn't cover the people the report is shared with. See how to assign licenses.

If a Professional license was verified on the same device in the last 7 days, all bins stay available and the status shows Professional (offline). Otherwise the 2,500-bin limit applies until the license can be checked again.

Power BI Report Server, Publish to web, app-owns-data embedding, and national clouds don't support license checks for visuals, so the 2,500-bin limit applies there. Contact us about these deployments.

Up to 100,000 bins on Professional. How smooth it feels depends on the report, the device, and the browser. For large layouts, start with the Balanced performance preset, and switch to Performance, turn off bin outlines and hover tooltips, or filter the report to one area if navigation slows down.

No. The visual makes no network requests and doesn't send your warehouse data, coordinates, or measures to Unclocked Studios. It only stores saved camera views and the date of the last license check in Power BI's storage for visuals. See the privacy policy.