A radar (spider) chart that reads honestly: a common scale from zero that does not move when you filter, axes that stay in place, and gaps where values are missing. The free version compares up to 3 series. Pro adds more series, a target with the gap on every axis, a scale per axis and reversed axes, bands, small multiples, axis groups, annotations, conditional formatting (fx) rules and a value table.
Read the radar axis by axis: further from the centre is a higher score (or a better one on axes marked ↓). Compare shapes where they cross. The area of a shape depends on the order of the axes, so it is not a total.
| Field | Kind | Required | What it does |
|---|---|---|---|
| Axis | Grouping | No* | One spoke per value: skill, criterion, KPI. A hierarchy gives drilldown. 3 to 40 axes; with more, the first 40 are drawn and a note says so. *Without Axis, each measure in Values is an axis. |
| Values | Measure | Yes | The score on each axis. With Axis and no Series, each measure is a series (like the radar chart by Microsoft). Without Axis, each measure is an axis, so survey data in columns works without unpivoting. |
| Series (legend) | Grouping | No, one field | One shape per value: supplier, employee, product. Free draws the first 3 in legend order and the legend says “3 of N series”; Pro draws up to 12. |
| Target | Measure | No — Pro, one field | Required level per axis: a dashed shape, the gap on every axis (green when the target is met, red when not) and the % of target scale. |
| Scale minimum / Scale maximum | Measure | No — Pro, one field each | Range of each axis for the scale per axis, such as the maximum points of each question. |
| Axis group | Grouping | No — Pro, one field | Groups of axes drawn as named arcs around the radar: technical, personal. Axes of the same group are kept together. |
| Note | Measure | No — Pro, one field | A text measure shown next to the point as an annotation (up to 40 characters; the full text in the tooltip). |
| Small multiples | Grouping | No — Pro, one field | One radar per value, all on the same scale. Each panel draws the axes that have rows in it. |
| Tooltips | Measure | No | Extra measures in the tooltip. |
| Capability | Free | Pro |
|---|---|---|
| Radar with a common scale from zero; minimum and maximum can be fixed (for example 1 to 5) | ✓ | ✓ |
| Axes stay in place: data order (respects Sort by column in the model), name, or value of the first series | ✓ | ✓ |
| Empty values drawn as a gap in the outline, never as zero; negative values with the zero ring marked | ✓ | ✓ |
| Measures as axes, without unpivoting | ✓ | ✓ |
| Up to 3 series, with a legend that says how many are drawn | ✓ | ✓ |
| Fill, line width, curved lines, marker size and shape (or one shape per series) | ✓ | ✓ |
| Grid as polygon or circle, spokes, ring values, rotation | ✓ | ✓ |
| Data labels, axis labels on two lines when long, legend top, bottom or right | ✓ | ✓ |
| 6 style templates, including IBCS style; setup guide | ✓ | ✓ |
| Notes on the data: dominant axis that flattens the others, values outside a fixed scale | ✓ | ✓ |
| Cross-filtering, highlight, bookmarks, drilldown, context menu, report tooltips, keyboard, high contrast | ✓ | ✓ |
| Number format of the measure, dynamic format strings included; format on the canvas; 12 languages | ✓ | ✓ |
| 4 to 12 series | — | ✓ |
| Target with the gap per axis | — | ✓ |
| Scale per axis (from the data or from Scale minimum/maximum), each axis labelling its own rings | — | ✓ |
| “Lower is better” reversed axes, marked with ↓ and in the tooltip | — | ✓ |
| % of target scale | — | ✓ |
| Bands (low, middle, high) and a reference ring | — | ✓ |
| Small multiples, or one radar per series without a panel field | — | ✓ |
| Axis groups as named arcs and annotations from a text measure | — | ✓ |
| Marker colour with conditional formatting (fx) rules | — | ✓ |
| Value table and mean of the axes | — | ✓ |
Turn on a Pro capability without a licence while editing and it is drawn working under a "Pro preview" watermark that names it. Reading view shows the free result. Pro is sold per user on Microsoft AppSource.
| Card | Settings |
|---|---|
| Style template | Clean, Classic, Minimal, Contrast, Compact, IBCS style. A template only fills what you have not set yourself. Setup guide: turn it back on to see the guide again. |
| Series | One colour per series; fill opacity; line width; curved lines (interpolated between neighbouring axes, so a curve never goes beyond the values of the two axes it joins). |
| Markers | Show; size; shape — circle, square, diamond, triangle or one per series; marker colour with conditional formatting (fx) rules (Pro). Power BI evaluates the rules per point when there is no Series field, like native charts with a Legend field; with Series the fx button is not offered. |
| Data labels | Show; text size and colour. |
| Scale | Common to all axes, Per axis (Pro) or % of target (Pro); start at zero; automatic range or minimum and maximum; rings; “Lower is better” axes (Pro), as axis names separated by commas. |
| Grid | Polygon or circle; line colour; spokes; ring values; rotation in degrees; text size and colour. |
| Axis labels | Show; text size and colour; font; bold; maximum characters (0 = automatic: long names wrap onto two lines). |
| Axis order | Data order, name, or value of the first series; descending. |
| Target | Target colour; show the gap per axis; colours above and below target. |
| Bands | Show bands (Pro), where the first and second band end in % of the scale; low, middle and high colours; opacity. Drawn on the common or % of target scale. |
| Reference ring | Show (Pro); value; label; colour. |
| Axis groups | Text size and colour of the group names. |
| Annotations | Show; text size and colour. |
| Center | Mean of the axes (Pro): the mean position of a series on the scale, in % — in the centre with one series, in the legend with several. |
| Legend | Show; position top, bottom or right; text size and colour. |
| Value table | Show (Pro), below the chart, up to 35 % of the height with its own scroll: value per axis and series, target and gap; text size and colour; header background and text colour; alternate row colour. |
| Small multiples | One radar per series (Pro); columns (0 = automatic); space between panels; title size, colour, bold and alignment; panel background and border. |
| Background | Colour of the whole visual. |
Format on the canvas: in format mode, click the shapes, the grid, the axis labels, the legend or the background to format them where they are.
Each spoke is a criterion, and the further a point is from the centre, the higher the score. The shape shows the profile: where a series is strong and where it is weak. Compare shapes axis by axis. The area of a shape depends on the order of the axes, so do not read it as a total — the visual never calculates or shows an area.
A radar that rescales with every filter makes 57 look like 100. The scale starts at zero by default and you can fix the minimum and maximum (for example 1 to 5) in Format → Scale. Turn off Start at zero only when zero has no meaning for your data.
On a common scale, an axis in ppm or euros flattens axes in % or points, and the visual names it in a note. Options: show the axes in separate visuals, normalise them in DAX, or use Scale → Per axis (Pro), where every axis has its own range and labels its own rings. With Scale minimum / maximum in the field wells, each axis uses the range you give it.
Type the axis names in Scale → Lower is better (Pro), separated by commas. Those axes are reversed, so outward is always better; they show ↓ next to the name and say so in the tooltip.
A gap is an empty value. Drawing it as zero would invent a bad score, so the outline stops there. A real zero is drawn.
It does not with Data order or Name. With Value of the first series the order follows the values, so it changes with them. To fix any order, use Sort by column on the axis field in the model and keep Data order.
For scores, use Average. With several evaluations per supplier and criterion, Sum adds them up and the scale no longer means 1 to 5.
The free version draws the first 3 in legend order and the legend says “3 of N series”. Pro draws up to 12. More than 4 or 5 shapes on one radar is hard to read: try small multiples, or One radar per series (Pro).
Power BI evaluates conditional formatting rules per point only when there is no field in Series, as it does for native charts with a Legend field. Without Series — one shape, or small multiples — the rule colours each marker by its value.
Power BI sends up to 30,000 combinations of axis, series and panel at a time. In the Power BI service the visual asks for further blocks, up to 20 more; in Power BI Desktop it uses the first block. A warning icon in the visual header says when rows were left out.
Bookmarks keep the points you select and the filters of the page. Like every Power BI visual, they do not keep formatting.
While you edit a report without a licence, Pro features you turn on are drawn working under a watermark that names them, and Power BI shows its licence notice. Reading view shows the free result, with a small note naming the Pro features it leaves out. Where Power BI provides no licence information (for example when you are not signed in to Power BI Desktop), the free result is shown.
On the visual's Microsoft AppSource page, choose Buy now (not Install free). Licences are per user and managed by Microsoft; restart Power BI Desktop after the licence is assigned. See tcviz.com/licensing.
With the number format of each measure from the model, dynamic format strings included, in the report's language. Averages that are not whole numbers show up to two decimals when the format has none.
No. The visual makes no network requests and stores nothing outside your report. The links on the start screen open only when you click them, through Power BI.
Write to support@tcviz.com or open a thread in GitHub Discussions.