Sam Booth

Category: Digital

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How to Generate a GPX File of OS Grid Squares

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During the 2020 lockdown, whilst not being able to go further afield, I’ve enjoyed exploring the residential streets of my town. I’d like to continue that spirit of “local exploration” by selecting an area of the Peak District near my house, and trying to visit every 1km grid square in that area at least once.

I wanted some kind of diagram to track my progress. The simple solution is to print out the map and colour in the squares. But I didn’t do that.

My finished challenge tracker.

Instead, I decided to use a Mapyx Quo project file to track my progress. When I’ve visited a new area, I will import my route, and keep track of my progress by changing the colour of the grid squares that have been “ticked off”.

It sounds simple, but it ended up being quite difficult. This article explains how I did it.