FAQ: What does the blue dot for custom dimensions mean?
In the Dimension area of Modeling, blue dots display to the left of custom dimensions and dimension values to indicate that they’re in use and can’t be deleted due to being dependent elsewhere in the model. The purpose of the blue dots is to help safeguard your data by preventing dependent dimensions and dimension values from being deleted.
You can delete in-use dimension values only after resolving dependencies in the tabs shown on the
View Dependencies for Dimension Values
dialog that show the message, “You can't delete dimension values that are in use on this tab.”To view this dialog, click the
View Dependencies
link in the Dimension Value Details
section of dimension value settings.Dimension Values and Blue Dots
In most cases, dimension values have blue dots when they're attached to data. To protect that data, Adaptive Planning prevents you from deleting dimension values until you remove them from the data.
Even when there’s no blue dot, the model may still be using the dimension value. Although the model may not prevent you from deleting the value, you should still click the
View Dependencies
link before deleting a dimension value to ensure that it’s not in use anywhere in the model. Otherwise, deleting the value without resolving dependencies may create errors in formulas and reports.Dimensions and Blue Dots
Dimensions have blue dots when at least 1 of their dimension values has a blue dot. As a result, you also can't delete the dimension until you resolve the dependencies of the dimension values.
Dimensions may still have blue dots even though all of their values don't. The blue dot indicates that you can't delete the dimension because it’s linked to:
- Sheet definitions. You can edit sheets in Modeling to remove the dimension. See Get to the Sheet Summary to Edit Sheets.
- Report definitions. You can edit reports to remove the dimension.
- Transaction definitions. You can edit transactions in Modeling to remove the dimension. See Reference: Transactions.
- The scope of allocations rules. You can edit the Scope tab of allocations rules to remove the dimension from the Preserve Dimensions list. See Concept: Allocation Rules.