Tags & Power BI

Cintoo Power BI integration is a feature allowing Cintoo users to display an embedded Power BI report within Cintoo 3D View and providing communication between Cintoo web application and the embedded report. 

This article describes how Progress Monitoring & Microsoft Power BI integration works, allowing to visualize progress data in a form of interactive dashboard connected to 3D View.

See Power BI embedded analytics overview - Power BI | Microsoft Learn for general documentation about embedded Power BI reports. 

Integration relies on Progress Monitoring feature in Cintoo, so a special permission Manage progress monitoring report is required.


Note: as it is currently designed, this integration requires Cintoo users to have a valid Power BI license and the permission to view the report in Power BI.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Prerequisite Entra ID Configuration

Integration requires an app registration in Microsoft Entra ID tenant, as described here: Get started with Power BI Embedded - Power BI | Microsoft Learn. 

Follow the instructions for Embed for your organization scenario. 

At the end of the process, a new App Registration should appear in Entra tenant. 


From Overview section of App Registration, copy Client ID and Tenant ID, which would later be needed in Cintoo.


In Authentication section, add a new platform configuration of type Single-page application. 

 

In Redirect URIs, put https://aec.cintoo.com, or https://us.cintoo.cloud or the name of Cintoo custom domain if the company has one (https://your-organization.cintoo.cloud) depending on the location of Cintoo account.


Depending on Entra security configuration, Entra administrator may need to grant admin consent for the organization, in API permissions section.


Power BI Service > Report.Real.All permission is mandatory for the integration.

Prerequisite Power BI Configuration

Create a Power BI model containing a table named CintooTags with a column named ID (upper case), which corresponds to the tag ID in Cintoo. It allows the report to connect tags within the report to tags in Cintoo.

This is a mandatory condition for the report to be interactive!

A screenshot of a computer Description automatically generated 


Create a report based on this model and publish it on Power BI service.

 

Note the Report ID, which could be found here in the report URL.

Report Embedding in Cintoo

Power BI icon is in the lower right corner of the viewer, click to open settings dialog. 

Enter Tenant ID, Client ID and Report ID collected in previous steps (Entra ID and Power BI configurations), and click Log in.



If App Registration is configured correctly, login popup will appear, and the report should appear after successful authentication.


Quit current Power BI report by clicking Log out.

Report Usage Example



Note: use CTRL + mouse wheel to zoom in/out the report with a view to adjust it accordingly.


In the report presented above ID column links tags in 3D View and in the report. 
Other fields are taken from external sources to enrich the data:

  • Location
  • Material
  • System
  • IoT

These are used as filters to narrow down the list of tags.


Note: switch to 3D Navi mode in 3D View before using the interactive localization with Power BI report.


Highlighting an item in the report list on the right (by clicking on it once) triggers Focus action in 3D View and moves the camera to the highlighted tag.


Note: when highlighting multiple items in the report list Cintoo will only focus on the first one.


 

Select one or multiple tags in Tag Explorer or a single tag in 3D View to synchronize them with Power BI report.

A page filter is created dynamically in the report with the list of selected tags.


It is also possible to search for the needed tag in Tag Explorer by copying it is name from Power BI dashboard and putting it into search bar.


Use cases

The above article highlights a tag navigation use case within the Cintoo Twin user interface, but possibilities of the Power BI dashboard are extensive, and the full potential depends on data lake and IoT access. Some examples of current client use include:

  • Streaming live IoT “On / Off” data from Azure IoT into Cintoo tag environment.
  • Streaming 2D technical data pdf data into Power BI using PDF viewer.
  • Comparing different stored progress monitoring reports and staged progressions.
  • Load and visualize design simulations and visualization the associate BIM models in 3D

The full potential of integration is yet to be achieved. Contact our support team at support@cintoo.com to see how Power BI can increase your productivity.