Need to show the direction of travel on a map in Power BI We had a client which needed us to do this very thing This short guide shows how to do it using the Icon Map https://www.selectdistinct.co.uk/2023/10/11/direction-of-travel-on-a-map-in-power-bi/ #PowerBI #IconMap #businessintelligence

1. Show Direction of Travel
on a map in Power BI
Power BI Tips
and Timesavers

2. A global commodity trading client of ours had a requirement to create a dashboard
that presented the latest locations and headings for a range of container ships
The internal BI team had been using a dashboard in Tableau which catered for this
requirement quite easily, but could not find a way to replicate this in Power BI, so the
task was handed over to us
What follows is a simplified guide using some sample data that we have generated to
make it straight forward to follow along

3. Getting Started
The first thing you will need is some
sample shipping data
We created a simple spreadsheet
with 49 rows to illustrate

4. Getting Started
You will also need an appropriate icon to represent the ships
In our case we used an AI image creator to represent a ship
and removed the background
It is important that this image faces North in its neutral
position, we will be applying the heading as a rotation to
illustrate the direction of travel

5. Load the sample data into Power BI
The first step is to load the sample data
into Power BI
On the Home ribbon in Power BI Desktop,
select get data, then Excel workbook and
select your excel file
If you download our sample data you will
save yourself some time and not have to
do anything to the field types

6. Load the ICON MAP V3 add in
Once it is loaded you can then
download the IconMapV3
from the marketplace, which
is a free download
select the three dots and
select get more visuals

7. Add the map to the canvas
Now select this and drag it
onto your canvas

8. Field Settings for the icon map
Field settings for the Icon Map
Category - use ship name
longitude = longitude
latitude = latitude
Size = Icon Size
Add the icon
Select format your visual
Then go down to objects and expand the section

9. Choosing the ICON
We will use the conditional formatting options under Image /
WKT
The icon field is a url which Power BI uses to download the icon

10. Rotate the image
Then set the heading, we use the image rotation to turn the
object by the correct number of degrees
Select Heading from the field options

11. The Map is drawn

12. Showing the direction of travel on a map in Power BI is made much
easier with this add in
This just the basics to get you started, and by following along with the
example you can get similar results
Icon Map v3 is the latest release and has a great deal more features,
some of which look very impressive

13. For more Tips, Tricks and
Timesavers, visit our website
Business Analytics Blog – Select Distinct
Credit: simon.harrison@selectdistinct.co.uk