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How-to guidesIntermediate6 min read· Published on October 21, 2026

Shape Gauge Plume: 12 use cases

Step by step: a barrel filled with burgundy, a fundraising thermometer, your logo filled up, one shape per product, circular fill, the player, thresholds, layers and pictograms.

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These recipes start from a Shape Gauge Plume already in place. If it is not, start with getting started: the examples reuse its data. Features marked ★ are premium: they work without a license, with a watermark.

How do I fill a barrel to 50% with burgundy?

You want to show the level of your wine tanks in a telling way.

  1. Create two measures: Wine in tanks = SUM ( Cellar[Volume] ) and Capacity = SUM ( Cellar[Capacity] ).
  2. Drag Wine in tanks into Value and Capacity into Target (100 %).
  3. Format › Shape › Shape = Containers and gauges · Barrel (free shape).
  4. Format › Data colors › Color = #7B1E2B (burgundy).

Result: the barrel fills to 50% with burgundy; its hoops stay drawn over the wine, like a real barrel. The 22 containers (bottle, wine glass, jar, tank, battery…) only fill their inside.

How do I build a fundraising thermometer with a goal and ticks? ★

A charity tracks donations against a $40,000 goal, on a $50,000 scale.

  1. Drag Donations raised into Value.
  2. Format › Shape › Shape = Thermometer (free shape).
  3. Format › Scale and target › Maximum (full shape) = 50000, Fixed target (value) = 40000, Label = Goal.
  4. Tick marks ★: on, Tick step (%) = 25.
  5. Format › Data labels › Content = Value.

Result: the tube and the bulb fill up, a dashed line marks $40,000, ticks from 0% to 100% line up on the right, and the amount is written in the bulb. With a Maximum field and a Target field, the line follows your measures instead of fixed values.

Tip: without tick marks, turn on Format › Scale and target › Minimum and maximum labels (free): "0" and "50,000" are written at the ends of the scale, like the native gauge's data labels.

  1. Open your SVG logo in a text editor and copy the whole code, from <svg to </svg>.
  2. Format › Shape › Source = Pasted SVG, then paste the code in SVG code.
  3. SVG colors = Original colors (logo).

Result: the filled part keeps the logo colors, the empty part is grayed out. The SVG is sanitized: scripts, images and web addresses are removed, nothing is loaded from the Internet. An unreadable SVG is replaced by the drop and a message shows in edit mode.

A simple SVG (filled paths, no text) gives the best result. The code of a single path (the d attribute, for example M12 2 L22 22 L2 22 Z) is accepted too.

How do I give each product its own shape? ★

  1. Create a text measure that returns an SVG for each product:
Product shape =
SWITCH (
    SELECTEDVALUE ( Products[Name] ),
    "Bike", "<svg viewBox='0 0 24 24'><path d='M5 18a4 4 0 1 1 0-8 4 4 0 0 1 0 8z'/></svg>",
    "Scooter", "M2 20 L22 20 L20 4 L18 4 Z",
    BLANK ()
)
  1. Drag Products[Name] into Category and the measure into SVG shape (measure).

Result: each product has its own shape; a product without an SVG keeps the shape chosen in the pane.

How do I fill in a circle starting at 12 o'clock? ★

  1. Format › Fill › Fill direction = Circular (start angle).
  2. Start angle (°, 0 = 12 o'clock) = 0 (12 o'clock), 90 (3 o'clock) or -90 (9 o'clock); Clockwise on or off.
  3. For a gradient: Format › Data colors › Coloring = Gradient along the fill, then Color and Gradient end (empty = accent).

Result: the shape fills like a rotating sector, on any shape (circle, star, logo). Radial (from the center) fills as a growing disk.

How do I show that 25% really fills a quarter of the shape? ★

On a drop, a heart or a triangle, the height does not tell the area: 25% of the height of a triangle pointing up holds far more than a quarter of its surface.

  1. Format › Fill › The percentage sets = The filled area (exact) ★.

Result: the level is computed so that the colored surface is exactly the percentage.

How do I fill the shape year after year? ★

  1. Drag Region into Category and Year into Play axis ★ (the column itself, as a whole number without a thousands separator).
  2. Format › Playback ★ › Frame shown on opening = The first one, Duration of a frame (ms) = 1200.

Result: a play bar appears under the shapes; the play button fills the drops year after year, the current year written in large type. Clicking a shape selects its region (not the year). The arrows, Home and End drive the bar from the keyboard.

How do I color each shape by thresholds? ★

  1. Format › Data colors › Coloring = By thresholds (unfavorable, middle, favorable) ★.
  2. Threshold 1 (%) = 50, Threshold 2 (%) = 80; turn on Lower is better (swaps the colors) for an error rate or a lead time.

Result: red below 50%, orange up to 80%, green above; the tooltip writes the status (unfavorable, middle, favorable). Without a license, the next recipe does the same for free with a DAX measure.

How do I compare with last year? ★

  1. Create Prior-year revenue = CALCULATE ( [Revenue], SAMEPERIODLASTYEAR ( Dates[Date] ) ) (or any comparison measure).
  2. Drag it into Comparison (previous period).
  3. Format › Data labels › Change vs comparison (▲▼ points): on.

Result: a dotted ghost level marks last year, a hollow arrow points to it on the right, and the label adds "▲ +8 pts" or "▼ −3 pts". Color never carries the information alone.

How do I show the share of each channel in the same shape? ★

  1. Drag the Web, Store and Phone measures into Stacked layers (8 at most), and Target into Target (100 %).
  2. Change the color of a layer in Format › Data colors.

Result: the layers stack up in the shape, one color each, with a legend; their sum gives the total level and the label.

How do I show 10 people for 100%? ★

  1. Format › Shape › Shape = People · Person.
  2. Format › Layout › Presentation = Pictograms (n shapes = 100%), Number of pictograms = 10.

Result: 73% gives 7 full people, one 30% full and 2 empty; the label is written under the row.

How do I change the color from the result with a DAX measure (free)?

  1. Create Result color = IF ( DIVIDE ( [Revenue], [Target] ) >= 0.8, "#2E7D4F", "#C0392B" ).
  2. Drag it into Dynamic format, then rename it for this visual to dataColors.single.

Result: the shape turns green from 80%, red below. The same principle drives any setting (title.text, fill.direction…); see the dynamic formats tutorial.

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