New ways of viewing treemaps, and of spacing them out

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Power BI Desktop updates for January 2025 Part four of a four-part series of blogs
This month includes some pretty minor updates (such as new ways to do treemaps), but we're breaking with our usual rules to highlight two features in preview: a new way to save files and a new language called TMDL for updating models. Introducing the Power BI Desktop updates for January 2025 The new Power BI Desktop file picker is very welcome The new TMDL model definition language New ways of viewing treemaps, and of spacing them out (this blog) We've been creating our idiosyncratic monthly blogs on Power BI updates since November 2016, and also deliver online and classroom Power BI courses.

Power BI Desktop updates for January 2025

Part four of a four-part series of blogs

This month includes some pretty minor updates (such as new ways to do treemaps), but we're breaking with our usual rules to highlight two features in preview: a new way to save files and a new language called TMDL for updating models.

Introducing the Power BI Desktop updates for January 2025
The new Power BI Desktop file picker is very welcome
The new TMDL model definition language
New ways of viewing treemaps, and of spacing them out (this blog)

We've been creating our idiosyncratic monthly blogs on Power BI updates since November 2016, and also deliver online and classroom Power BI courses.

Posted by Andy Brown on 03 February 2025

In this blog

The example for this blog
New treemap tiling methods
Changing spacing

You can now play about more with treemaps!

This is a binary treemap, with spacing between nodes and groups (read on).

The example for this blog

For this blog I'm using a treemap which breaks sales down into region, and then within region by environment (Land, Water or Air):

The data fields for our tree map.

New treemap tiling methods

You can now apply one of 3 tiling methods to a treemap:

Choose between Binary, Squarified and Alternating (Columns, Rows).

Here's the same treemap with each tiling method applied:

The Alternating (Columns, Rows) layout on the right is distinctive, but the other two are quite similar.

Here's what Microsoft have to say about the difference between the first two layouts:

Layout	Microsoft's description
Squariffied	"This method uses a squarified treemap algorithm to prevent elongated rectangles, creating a balanced layout. It arranges rectangles so their aspect ratios are close to squares, making size comparisons potentially easier."
Binary	"This method continuously divides the chart area into two sections while incrementally adding new rectangles/nodes creating a balanced and visually appealing treemap. Each hierarchy level further splits the space, resulting in an organized treemap that adapts to the dataset’s structure. It may produce different visual characteristics compared to squarified algorithm depending on the dataset."

I've got to admit that I struggle to understand the two descriptions above, but I guess it's a case of try both layouts out and see which one you prefer!

Changing spacing

While I find it hard to get excited about the new layouts, I do think the ability to add spacing is a good idea:

See below for what the two spacing options mean.

Here are 4 treemaps with the different spacing options illustrated:

I think the spacing helps users interpret the treemap.

How about this for the perfect treemap settings: squarified, with a node gap of 2 pixels and a group gap of 4 pixels:

Your tastes, obviously, may differ.

Of course many (most) statisticians will tell you that you should never use pie charts (of which treemaps are really just an oblong example).

Parts of this blog
Introducing the Power BI Desktop updates for January 2025 The new Power BI Desktop file picker is very welcome The new TMDL model definition language New ways of viewing treemaps, and of spacing them out (this blog)

Some other pages relevant to the above blogs include:

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