Orbit Bubble Chart presents grouped data as large parent bubbles with child bubbles arranged around them.
It is designed for use cases where category totals matter, item-level differences matter, and a plain bubble
plot does not provide enough structure.
Use this visual when you need to compare grouped entities first and inspect individual members second,
such as customer portfolios, product families, account clusters, or organizational structures.
Overview of Orbit Bubble Chart
Orbit Bubble Chart is a Power BI custom visual that displays grouped data through a parent-and-child bubble layout.
Each parent category becomes a central bubble, and each child data point is rendered around it.
Bubble Size controls the visual weight of the child bubbles and helps users quickly spot the most important items within a group.
The visual is useful when you want a compact, interactive view of clustered relationships without moving to a full
network diagram. It supports exploration through hover, selection, dragging, label display, and tooltip formatting.
- Show category totals and item-level sizing in a single view.
- Use Parent, Child, and Bubble Size as a straightforward field setup.
- Enable radial spread when you want large items to stand farther from the center.
- Select a child for row-level filtering or a parent for group-level filtering.
How to use Orbit Bubble Chart
The visual uses a simple setup but offers several useful interaction patterns. The sections below explain the main way
report authors and report consumers can work with the chart.
Map Parent, Child, and Bubble Size
Start by placing a grouped field in Parent, a member field in Child, and a numeric measure in Bubble Size.
The parent bubble represents the group, while the children orbit around it according to the values coming from Bubble Size.
This setup keeps the visual easy to explain and fast to bind for report authors who want grouped comparison without building a more complex relationship view.
Read the group from the center first
Each parent category becomes the main anchor bubble. This lets users read total group scale before inspecting any individual child item.
The layout is especially useful when the comparison between groups matters as much as the comparison within a group.
Inspect child members through hover and selection
Users can hover a bubble to focus attention on the relevant item or group. Tooltips surface the important details and selection behaves like a native Power BI visual.
A child bubble can be selected for row-level filtering, while the parent bubble can be used to select the broader category when that is the level the report consumer cares about.
Enable Radial Spread for extra separation
When Radial Spread is turned on, Bubble Size does more than control radius. Larger children can also sit farther from the parent bubble,
giving the measure a second visual cue and making dense groups easier to read.
Drag clusters or children to inspect dense areas
The visual supports hands-on exploration when the layout becomes crowded. Small adjustments make it easier to inspect local detail while keeping the chart on canvas.
This is helpful when you want a more exploratory feel than a static comparison chart can provide.
Use labels and tooltips to keep context readable
Labels can be shown directly on the bubbles when space allows, and tooltip formatting gives control over units and decimals.
This helps the visual stay readable in both high-level storytelling pages and more detailed analytical pages.
Formatting options
Orbit Bubble Chart includes formatting controls that let report authors shift the visual from a quiet analytical style to a more expressive branded presentation.
1) Settings
Use the core scaling settings to control how prominent the bubbles feel inside the plot area.
- Bubble Scale
- Image Size settings
2) Orbit Bubble Layout
Adjust spacing and movement so the grouping structure matches the density of your data.
- Cluster Spread
- Child Size (%)
- Parent Fill Opacity (%)
- Radial Spread
- Spoke Length (%)
3) Bubble Colors
Shape the personality of the chart with flat or gradient-based color treatment.
- Radial Gradient toggle
- Gradient Inner Color
- Light X Position and Light Y Position
- Gradient Radius
- Color1 through Color10
4) Labels and Tooltips
Control readability and numeric presentation for different dashboard contexts.
- Show Labels
- Font Size, Font Family, and Font Color
- Tooltip Decimals
- Tooltip Display Units
Download
Download the sample pbix file from the link below
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