Defining a semantic model

Applies to: Kyvos Enterprise Kyvos Cloud (SaaS on AWS) Kyvos AWS Marketplace

Kyvos Azure Marketplace Kyvos GCP Marketplace Kyvos Single Node Installation (Kyvos SNI)

When you define a semantic model, you add dimensions and measures. In Source Fields, the circled numbers next to candidate measures and dimensions indicate how many times each one is used in the design.

Note

Kyvos supports naming semantic model entities in the ENTITY_ format, such as DIMENSION_, DIM_, and MEASURE_, and so on.

From Kyvos 2025.9 onward, you can create a Base model and a Perspective model. With the Perspective model, you can expose only a subset of a base semantic model—such as dimensions, hierarchies, attributes, and measures—to specific groups or individuals. This allows for simplified, customized views of the semantic model tailored to distinct business use cases, without the need to duplicate data.

Base Model – Contains the actual data.
Perspective Model – Provides a filtered view of selected elements from the base model without duplicating data.

From Kyvos 2024.9 onwards, you can suspend any unused semantic model. You can also resume the usage of a suspended semantic model when needed.

Designing a base model
Designing a Perspective model
Suspending a semantic model
Resuming a suspended model

Designing a Base model

To design a semantic model, perform the following steps.

From the Toolbox, click Semantic Models.
Click the Actions menu ( ⋮ ) at the top of the Semantic Models column.
Click Add Base Model.
Enter a name for the semantic model.
Select a Relationship from the list and click Add.
You can enter a term in the search box to quickly find a name.
Do one of the following:
1. Right-click in the Dimension or Measure areas to add dimensions or measures.
  By default, the name of the data source table from which the first measure is created in the measure group is taken as the measure group name. However, if you have created a measure group with a custom name, then dragging a measure in it would not impact the name of the measure group.
2. Drag candidate measures or dimensions to the semantic model design worksheet to the areas for measures and dimensions. Use Ctrl+click to select multiple fields.
3. Click the plus buttons in the Dimension or Measure columns to add additional dimensions or measures. Then select candidate measures or dimensions from the candidate lists on the left.
Right-click at the Dimension or Measure Group levels to rename them and add lower levels.
Right-click at the lower levels to rename the item you selected or add items at that level.
Click the Actions menu (...) menu near the top of the page and choose Validate. See Validating semantic model.
Click Save.

Tips

You can click the Expand All icon next to the Tips icon to expand all dimensions and measures, or if they are expanded, you can click the Collapse All icon in the same location to collapse them.

Selecting dimensions and measures

Under Source Fields, you can select dimensions and measures to drag into the dimension and measure areas. You can select multiple elements in a semantic model using Ctrl+Click. You can also select and delete multiple elements in the semantic model.

Methods to move hierarchies, attributes or levels

When using the Design tab, you can drag an item to a different dimension or measure a group. You will see a placeholder indicator, for example, Drop as dimension.
When you select an item, you can use the Properties pane to move it to a different hierarchy or measure group.

Tips

You can use wild card characters % (and) while naming attributes, levels, hierarchies, dimensions, measure groups, measures, and calculated measures.

Designing a Perspective model

A Perspective model can only be created on a Base model; it cannot be created on another Perspective model. Multiple Perspective models can be created from a single Base model.
For Perspective models, no semantic model processing is required. Once the Perspective model is saved, it is created and becomes available for browsing.
Additionally, any CLS (Column-Level Security) or RLS (Row-Level Security) applied to the Base semantic model will also be applied to the corresponding Perspective model.

To create a perspective model, perform the following steps.

From the Toolbox, click Semantic Models.
Click the Actions menu ( ⋮ ) at the top of the Semantic Models column.
Click Add Perspective Model.
Select the semantic model and click Select. The selected semantic model (base model) will be displayed.
Select the required dimension from the left pane and drag it to the Dimension. Do the same process for the Members group as well.

Note

The hierarchy must be dragged as is but the levels can be dragged to the dimensions column as needed.

Enter the name of the perspective model and click Save.
After saving the perspective model, you can now browse the semantic model.

Suspending a semantic model

You can suspend any unused semantic model. When you suspend the semantic model, you cannot query or browse it.

To suspend a semantic model, perform the following steps.

From the Toolbox, click Semantic Models.
Select a semantic model from the list.
Right click the semantic model and select the Suspend Usage option from the list. The semantic model is suspended.

Resuming a suspended semantic model

You can also resume the usage of a suspended semantic model when needed. When you resume the usage of the suspend the semantic model, you can query or browse it.

To resume a suspend semantic model, perform the following steps.

From the Toolbox, click Semantic Models.
Select a semantic model from the list.
Right click the semantic model and select the Resume Usage option from the list.
On the confirmation dialog box, click Resume. The suspended semantic model is now available for querying and browsing.

Filtering

Use the Filter panel, which by default is located below the Properties pane, to filter dimensions and measures. If the Filter panel is collapsed, click the Actions menu ( ⋮ ) next to Filter and select Expand.

As you select filter settings, the dimensions and measures lists adjust based on your criteria. Use filters to get insight into your data. For example, you can set Invalid to Yes to swiftly view all invalid items. Click Clear to clear the settings in that filter.

Properties

Use the Properties pane to view and modify the properties of a semantic model or you can use the context menu for each item. Click each item to view or modify its properties. Some properties have an information icon next to the name. Click it to learn more.

You can also use the Refine tab to view the advanced properties and other strategies.

Description

If you add a description to properties of dimensions or measures, you can view those descriptions when creating a worksheet or dashboard.

Logical and Physical views

You can maintain the logical view of a semantic model to support business requirements and tune the physical view to support optimization requirements. The logical view, which is the default view, shows all calculated measures and members.

To switch to the physical view, perform the following steps:

Click the Refine tab.
To change back to the logical view, click the Design tab.

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