Star schema tables to Looker model

Hi, we’ve been using Looker for 2+ years without any previous experience with this tool. We have all data stored in db in star schema - Kimball dimensional data modelling. We are used to create models in the following way:

  1. We create views based on those dim and fact tables. E.g. we have dim_status.view and fact_order.view
  2. We create .explore by joining fact table to its all dimensional tables
  3. We create .model from explore. I assume many companies creates model directly from views, but .explore allows us to use prepared ‘exlores’ in various models without defining it all over again. It’s more transparent and always up to date in every model.

This approach is too complicated and complex. It generates a lot of .view and .explore files. Plus we have to create dim_status multiple times if it’s used in one SELECT more than once.

So my question is: those who use star schema in dbs how do you handle Looker models? We are thinking about creating denormalised tables up on star schema for Looker purposes. It would be faster to query in Looker and easier for developers to build Looker models based on them. What do you think? What’s your approach?

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