Tools and deep dives for Power BI developers — open source PBIX parser, file format internals, and a native macOS viewer. Built in London, UK.https://www.pbixray.com/https://www.pbixray.com/posts/powerpivot-xpress8-powershell/https://www.pbixray.com/posts/powerpivot-xpress8-powershell/VertiPaq's xpress8 compression is raw MS-XCA LZ77 behind a two-field wrapper, and Windows has shipped a decoder for it all along. Enough to read the Power Pivot model inside an Excel workbook from a PowerShell script with no dependencies.Wed, 12 Aug 2026 08:00:00 GMThttps://www.pbixray.com/posts/pbixray-macos-pbix-viewer/https://www.pbixray.com/posts/pbixray-macos-pbix-viewer/PBIXRay is a native macOS app for opening and inspecting Power BI PBIX files, including the model, DAX, Power Query, data and report structure.Thu, 23 Jul 2026 08:00:00 GMThttps://www.pbixray.com/posts/vertipaq-row-ordering-visual/https://www.pbixray.com/posts/vertipaq-row-ordering-visual/A visual companion to the row-ordering article — step through the greedy bucket-splitting algorithm that VertiPaq uses to maximise RLE compression.Sat, 16 May 2026 08:00:00 GMThttps://www.pbixray.com/posts/parsing-power-pivot-xlsx/https://www.pbixray.com/posts/parsing-power-pivot-xlsx/Excel workbooks with Power Pivot models contain the same Analysis Services and VertiPaq storage ideas as PBIX files. This article shows how PBIXRay reads them directly from Python.Tue, 12 May 2026 08:00:00 GMThttps://www.pbixray.com/posts/pbix-info-browser-wasm/https://www.pbixray.com/posts/pbix-info-browser-wasm/PBIX.info: a browser-based PBIX inspector built on WebAssembly. Local-first parsing, interactive diagrams, and shareable collaboration links.Mon, 27 Apr 2026 08:00:00 GMThttps://www.pbixray.com/posts/vertipaq-rle-optimization/https://www.pbixray.com/posts/vertipaq-rle-optimization/How VertiPaq appears to use a greedy row-reordering algorithm to maximise RLE compression across all columns in a segment.Tue, 21 Apr 2026 08:00:00 GMThttps://www.pbixray.com/posts/reconstructing-column-data-from-idf-and-idfmeta/https://www.pbixray.com/posts/reconstructing-column-data-from-idf-and-idfmeta/How VertiPaq stores column segments in .idf and .idfmeta files, and how those files combine to reconstruct imported table data from a PBIX file.Tue, 14 Apr 2026 08:00:00 GMThttps://www.pbixray.com/posts/vertipaq-dictionaries-and-hash-indexes/https://www.pbixray.com/posts/vertipaq-dictionaries-and-hash-indexes/How VertiPaq stores dictionaries and hash indexes inside a PBIX file, and how those structures help turn internal IDs back into readable values.Tue, 07 Apr 2026 08:00:00 GMThttps://www.pbixray.com/posts/parsing-pbix-python/https://www.pbixray.com/posts/parsing-pbix-python/Extract tables, measures, M queries, and report metadata from any PBIX file using the open source Python library PBIXRay — no Power BI required.Tue, 17 Mar 2026 08:00:00 GMThttps://www.pbixray.com/posts/semantic-model-tables-measures/https://www.pbixray.com/posts/semantic-model-tables-measures/How metadata.sqlitedb inside a PBIX file exposes the semantic model as an embedded SQLite database, mirroring the same objects as TMSCHEMA DMVs.Tue, 24 Feb 2026 08:00:00 GMThttps://www.pbixray.com/posts/datamodel-engine/https://www.pbixray.com/posts/datamodel-engine/Power BI embeds a full Analysis Services Vertipaq engine inside every PBIX file. This article explains how the DataModel stream works and what it contains.Tue, 27 Jan 2026 08:00:00 GMThttps://www.pbixray.com/posts/pbix-zip-structure/https://www.pbixray.com/posts/pbix-zip-structure/A PBIX file is a ZIP archive. Here's a map of every entry inside it — what each file does and how they relate to one another.Tue, 20 Jan 2026 08:00:00 GMThttps://www.pbixray.com/posts/pbix-format-overview/https://www.pbixray.com/posts/pbix-format-overview/An introduction to the .pbix file format — what it contains, how Power BI uses it, and why its internals matter for developers and data engineers.Tue, 13 Jan 2026 08:00:00 GMT