Recently, Dave Ruijter posted a blog about a library containing all the Azure Icons. He shared all icons in his GitHub repository which allows you to directly connect it to the tool Diagrams.net (previously known as draw.io) to draft your Azure architecture.
One missing piece in this library was Power BI. Because of that, I decided to setup an icon library for all Power BI objects.
Please find the updated blog post here.
QUICK LINK: To directly open Diagrams.net with the appropriate library loaded, you can use this link.
Also check out the update to this blogpost here.
Diagrams.net?
Previously, I used a simple PowerPoint slide when I drafted technical solution proposals. This took me a whole lot of time by copy-pasting all the images, make it look nice and connect the dots together. While tools like diagrams.net are built for this purpose, I always stuck with PowerPoint as there were no icons for all Power BI objects in this tool. Until now!
The online tool Diagrams.net allow you to quickly draft your solution architecture by dragging and dropping icons on a white canvas and easily connecting the dots together. Below a simple example of what you can build in minutes!
What’s available?
As a first setup of an icon library, I decided to go for all objects in Power BI where you can grant permission to. I have used all icons that are used in the new updated interface of the Power BI Service.
The following list is available;
- Workspace
- Dataflow
- Dataset
- Report
- Paginated Report
- Dashboard
- App
- Deployment Pipeline
- On-premises data gateway
On top of that, I added some useful icons to extend the above items
- Premium icon (workspaces)
- Linked entity icon (dataflows)
- Computed entity icon (dataflows)
- Row-level-security icon
- *.pbix file
- *.pbit file
- *.pbids file
- General Power BI logo (yellow & black)
Do you miss an icon or have suggestions for further enhancements? Please let me know in the comments below or contribute on GitHub!
Get started!
Diagrams.net is a free tool that you can either run in your browser or run as a client application. You can get the tool via their website.
If you prefer to first download the icon library, you can also get it from GitHub via the link below. The XML file is the one you need to import in the tool.
You can either use this link to directly start with a blank canvas and the library loaded, or import the library manually to existing diagrams following the steps below.
With a few simple steps you can import the library in your environment. I have repeated the steps shortly below, but also have a look at Dave his blog for a more extensive description.
1. Open Diagrams.net
2. Click File
3. Choose Open Library From
4. Choose URL
5. Copy-paste this URL
6. Click Open
Data - Marc 
Pingback: Power BI Icons for Diagrams.Net – Curated SQL
Pingback: [UPDATED] Power BI icon for Diagrams.net to draft full Power Platform Solutions – Data – Marc
Hi Marc, really useful thank you!
Just to say your “this URL” link is coming back 404…
https://raw.githubusercontent.com/marclelijveld/Power-BI-Icons/master/Diagrams.net%20Library/Diagrams.net_PowerBIIcons.xml
LikeLike
I got it to work using this link
https://raw.githubusercontent.com/marclelijveld/Power-BI-Icons/master/Diagrams.net_PowerBIIcons.xml
LikeLike
Thanks for letting me know. I’ll update the link in the article.
LikeLike
And finally, to import using the draw.io desktop version. Choose File > New Library. Provide a name for your library and then “Import”, navigate to the Diagrams.net_PowerBIIcons.xml file you’ve downloaded from Marc’s github and click “Open” and you should see all of the lovely icons!
LikeLiked by 1 person
Hi Mark, Thanks for these very useful resources. Do you think you could add the Paginated report icon?
Thanks again!
LikeLike
Would love to! Do you know a resource where I can get the icon?
The recently released icons in the February 2021 release are nowhere online yet. So couldn’t add them yet
LikeLike
Hi Marc,
Thank you very much > very useful!
LikeLike
Pingback: Power BI Icon Library – now includes official icons to use in Draw.io / Diagrams.net – Data – Marc
Thanks for this – very helpful.
LikeLike
Is it possible to have your diagram as excemple ?
LikeLike
Sorry, I don’t have this file anymore. But is there a certain challenge you’re facing? Maybe I can point you in the right direction.
–Marc
LikeLike
I have to do an almost similar diagram. I didn’t want to start from the begining…
LikeLike
Hello folks! i just have a question: How do you do to re-create the original coloures icons? (such as dataflow icon in withe with brown background, report wth blue background and white lines, dataset with white lines and orange background and so on).
I am basically struggling changing the colour of the icons from black to anything else.. white in this case.
(Pd. this tool is amazing!)
Thanks!!
LikeLike
Hi Giuliano,
I think you cannot, the colored icons which were there before, are replaced with these official ones. The colored ones will not return in this library.
What I personally do often, is adding a square behind it, and then grouping which makes it look and behave like one object.
–Marc
LikeLike
Huge help – thank you!
LikeLike