How to Add an Existing Dimension to a SSAS Project.

ByAdam Gilmore Updated on
1 Comment

To add an Existing Dimension to an SSAS Project

  1. Right click the project node in Solutions Explorer.
  2. Select Add>Existing Item.
  3. Navigate to the dimension file (wherever it may be), select it and click add.

A copy of the dimension is copied into your SSAS project root directory, and added to the project.

A Dimension is associated with a Data Source view. If your imported Dimension points at a Data Source View that doesn’t exist in your Cube project you will see a message in the ‘Data Source View’ pane of the Dimension editor which says the Data Source View cannot be found. This is where it gets Funky. There is no GUI method of changing the Data Source View of a Dimension.  You have to edit the XML of the Dimension to change the Data Source view of the Dimension. Do the following.

  1. First, click on the Data Source view you want your Dimension to point at. Note the Object Id in the properties tool window.
  2. Right Click the Dimension and click View Code. Search for a DataSourceViewID. You should find something like this <DataSourceViewID>Data Mart</DataSourceViewID>.
  3. Change the contents of the <DataSourceViewID> element to the Object Id of the desired Data Source view.
  4. Re-open the Dimension. Provided there is an identical table with the same name in the new Data Source view as there was in the old Data Source View, everything should be linked up.
That’s it.
Adam Gilmore

Adam Gilmore is a Data Architect with 20 years' experience in the Data field. He writes for dimodelo.com and develops courses covering Data Analysis to Data Architecture.

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One Comment

  1. works nicely !

    you may want to additionaly copy/paste all of the named calculations of the dimension in the code view from the source dsv file. to localize the code i previously created a faked named calculation into the dimension

    Reply