Range: keep the values you want, hide the rest or score them lower
Want only the hexes where the most people live - the top 30% of London's hexes by residents? A Range keeps one span of a factor's values. Outside it, hide those hexes - a filter - or give them fewer points, sloping to zero like a trapezoidal membership function. Here is each on London.
A Range keeps one span of a measure's values - the top 30% of London's hexes by residents, about 464 residents or more, say - and you decide what happens to every hex (one hexagon on the map, about 350 m across) outside it. On a Score factor there are two answers: Hide those hexes, which grays them out and leaves them out of the ranking, or Give them fewer points, which hides nothing and scores that factor lower the farther a hex sits outside the span.
Hiding is what the field calls a filter: a plain yes or no per hex. Fewer points is a trapezoidal membership function, from fuzzy logic: full marks on a flat top, sloping straight down to zero on either side - drawn, it is a trapezoid.
Rangethe field's term: Filter · trapezoidal membership function
The series' Score with a Range on its residents factor - the top 30% of hexes, about 464 residents or more - set to Hide those hexes. The hexes inside keep their Score colors; where fewer people live - parks, the river, the very center, the outer edges - the map is gray.
The idea, in one sentence
Say which values of one measure you want, then either hide the hexes outside them or let them score less on that factor. Inside the range, nothing changes either way.
Inside the range
The hex is scored exactly as before - under Give them fewer points, it takes that factor's full points.
Outside · Hide those hexes
Drawn gray and left out of the ranking, Top, the Standouts and the legend's colors. The default.
Outside · Give them fewer points
Nothing is hidden. The factor's points fall in a straight line, reaching zero at the edge of the hexes compared.
Where to click
Every factor of a Score has a small Range button. So does the measure row of the Amount and Variety maps, where a range always hides. Press it and a panel opens under the row.
Where to click
Map type
Score
Total population factor
Range
% of hexes
Between 70 and (empty)
Done
The Range panel on the residents factor, set to the top 30% of London's hexes. The panel turns that back into values - about 464 residents, to any - and the dashed line at the right end means no upper limit.
Each part of it does one job:
Between … and … - the two ends, above the bars. Either box may stay empty, and an empty box reads any; in values, the panel says “Leave a box empty for no limit on that side.” You can also drag the two handles on the bars.
Values or % of hexes - the same range in the measure's own units, or as a share of London's hexes from low to high. Here the first box holds 70 and the second is left empty, so the range is the top 30% of hexes.
Outside the range - Hide those hexes or Give them fewer points, each with one line saying what it does.
Remove range takes it off; Done closes the panel. Every change applies at once, so the map is the preview.
Once set, the button becomes a chip with only the numbers - top 30% of hexes, 6,400 or more, 3,000–4,500 - and a ✕ to remove it.
The residents factor with its range set. The chip at the bottom shows only the numbers: top 30% of hexes.
Hide those hexes
The default. A hex outside the range stays on the map, drawn gray, and leaves everything that ranks: the ranking, Top, the Standouts and the legend's colors, which are spread over the hexes left. The legend counts the gray ones, and a chip on the map names the range - Total population top 30% of hexes - with a ✕ that removes it.
The legend's extra row: 22,269 of London's hexes are outside this range and drawn gray.
Hover a gray hex and its card still gives its points, with one line on top: “Outside a range on this Score, so this hex is drawn gray and not ranked. Its points below are still worked out.”
One thing does not change: what each factor is compared with. Cafés, residents and transit stops are still placed among the same London hexes as before. A range narrows what you look at, never the yardstick - so a hex inside the range keeps exactly the score it had without it.
Give them fewer points
The other choice, on a Score factor only. Nothing turns gray: inside the range the factor gives its full points; outside, its points fall in a straight line the farther a hex sits from the range, down to zero at the lowest and the highest values among the hexes compared.
Give them fewer points, on the same top 30% of hexes. The shading turns blue, and the note says it plainly: nothing is hidden.The same range, giving fewer points. No hex is gray, and the map stays close to the Score without a range: every hex with about 464 residents or more now takes the residents factor's full points, and the rest lose some.
It also sets the factor's direction aside. Inside the range is best, whether the factor was More is better or Less is better. With only a lower end, as here, that means “enough people” rather than “the most people”: a hex with 2,000 residents no longer beats one with 500 on this factor. Set both ends and it means neither the most nor the least, but this much.
The residents factor, top 30% of hexes (about 464 or more), worth 33 points (illustrative)
1,853 residents · inside
1 × 33 = 33 points
500 residents · inside
1 × 33 = 33 points
232 residents · halfway from 0 to 464
0.5 × 33 ≈ 17 points
0 residents · at the edge
0 points
With no upper limit only the low side slopes, from the range's low end down to the lowest value among the hexes compared - taken here as 0. A range with both ends also slopes above, from its high end up to the highest value. Residents come from ONS Census 2021 and are an estimate for each hex.
Under Must be decent at everything, a zero is a zero
With Must be decent at everything, a hex at the far edge gets zero points on the ranged factor - and a zero on any factor floors that hex's whole Score to zero. That is deliberate: a hex as far from your range as a hex can be is not decent at that factor.
Where a range can't go
A range reads a measure's own value. A map that draws a comparison instead has no such value to cut, so on Fair share, Missing and Clusters the button is grayed out with the reason: “A range reads the measure's own value; on this map use Only where … to narrow it” - see Only where …. On a Score factor shown as what is missing, it says: “A range reads the factor's own value, so it can't be set on what is missing”.
On Amount and Variety a range always hides, and it takes one of the three places Only where … conditions share.
% of hexes is always London's. The cut is taken over the whole city, so drawing an area never changes which hexes are inside.
An unknown value is never inside. A hex with no figure for the measure is hidden by a hide range, never read as a zero that happens to fit.
A range belongs to its reading. Change the factor's Count as or Look at and the range comes off; switch back and it returns.
Try it on the series' Score
A range travels only inside a copied link (Copy link), so the button below opens the Score this series uses - cafés and transit stops within a 10-minute walk, plus the residents of each hex - without one. Open the Total population factor, press Range, choose % of hexes, type 70 in the first box and leave the second empty; then flip between the two choices under Outside the range.
A range is a line you draw; the app does not know which values are right for you. The places are those Overture Maps lists (release 2026-08-19), and residents are an estimate for each hex from ONS Census 2021. Treat a ranged map as decision support, not a forecast.
The whole idea, in six lines
Range keeps a span of one measure's values: Between … and …, in values or % of hexes, either side optional.
Hide those hexes (the default) grays the rest and leaves them out of the ranking, Top, the Standouts and the legend.
Give them fewer points hides nothing: full points inside, falling in a straight line to zero at the edge - a trapezoidal membership function.
Every factor is still placed among the same hexes, and % of hexes is always the whole city's.
Fair share, Missing and Clusters have no own value to cut - use Only where … there.
Under Must be decent at everything, a zero at the far edge floors the Score; a range travels only in Copy link.
Quick questions
What does a Range do?
It keeps one span of a measure's values - between two numbers, or a share of the city's hexes such as the top 30% - set from the Range button on a Score factor or on the Amount and Variety measure row. Either end may be left open.
What is the difference between Hide those hexes and Give them fewer points?
Hide those hexes draws hexes outside the range gray and leaves them out of the ranking, Top, the Standouts and the legend - 22,269 London hexes for the top 30% by residents. Give them fewer points hides nothing: the factor's points fall in a straight line from full inside the range to zero at the edge of the hexes compared.
Does hiding hexes change the scores of the hexes left?
No. Every factor is still placed among the same hexes, so a hex inside the range keeps the score it had; only the legend's colors are spread over the hexes left.
Why can't I set a Range on Fair share, Missing or Clusters?
A range reads a measure's own value, and those maps draw a comparison instead. Use Only where … to narrow them.
Can I share a map with a Range on it?
Yes, with Copy link: a range travels inside the copied link, so the person you send it to sees the same range.
See it on a real map
The best way to understand the score is to play with it. The full app is on a Free Tier, with no sales call.
Builds MapBees's location-intelligence pipeline end to end — census and Overture Maps ingestion, H3 hex scoring, and the map interface — and writes the methodology behind every number on the site.
