Setting PowerPivot Data Model Refresh Rates

When the Power Pivot Data Models are stored within a PowerPivot Gallery, you will want to have them periodically refresh to get the latest information. Rather than doing this manually, you can configure a default refresh rate and the gallery will do the rest for you.

NOTE: This is part of the Using PowerPivot to Analyze Your Dynamics AX Data blog series where we show how PowerPivot can assist you with advanced data analysis and reporting, making those extracts from Dynamics AX to Excel even more valuable. If you want to see all of the other posts in this series, click here.

HOW TO DO IT

To enable automatic refreshing of the Power Pivot Data Models when they are stored within the PowerPivot Galleries, follow these steps:

1. Within the PowerPivot Gallery, if you select a data source, you will be able to see three icons to the right of the selection. Click on the third one that is captioned Manage Data Refresh to launch the Data Refresh Configuration form.
   
2. When the Manage Data Refresh options form is displayed, you can enable data refresh, and also specify the frequency of the data refresh. When you are done, just click OK to start the auto refreshing.