MIL-STD-2525 · APP-6 · Open source

Symbology for mission maps

Zaes builds the symbology a mission map needs, each drawn from its own standard: unit and equipment symbols, the tactical graphics drawn around them, and weather and ocean graphics. Every library saves plain GeoJSON, displays on OpenLayers and MapLibre, and edits with the same editor. The libraries are free under the MIT license; commercial add-ons take them to Cesium, TAK and ArcGIS.

Actual library outputMilitary Symbols
An operational picture drawn by the Zaes Military Symbols library: friendly armor, infantry, reconnaissance, artillery and engineer units with their headquarters, echelons, names and directions of movement, aircraft with speed leaders, an unmanned aircraft, a satellite, hostile armor, infantry, a helicopter and air defense, a surface combatant, a submarine, an installation, an activity and a datum
OpenLayersMapLibreCesiumTAK
3libraries
1,2472525E military symbols
323tactical graphics
408METOC graphics
MITopen source

One family, each drawn from its standard

Each library owns its standard and nothing else, so a program takes the ones its maps need, and they draw together on one map.

An operational picture drawn by the Zaes Military Symbols library: friendly armor, infantry, reconnaissance, artillery and engineer units with their headquarters, echelons, names and directions of movement, aircraft with speed leaders, an unmanned aircraft, a satellite, hostile armor, infantry, a helicopter and air defense, a surface combatant, a submarine, an installation, an activity and a datum
MIL-STD-2525B to E · APP-6

Military Symbols

Every single-point symbol of MIL-STD-2525E, 2525D, 2525C and 2525B, and APP-6(B): units, equipment, installations, activities and point control measures, with every amplifier the standard places. As SVG, a canvas or on a map.

Tactical graphics drawn by the Zaes library: arrows, phase lines, boundaries and areas
FM 1-02.2 · APP-6 · MIL-STD-2525

Tactical Graphics

The control measures drawn from several points: axes of advance, phase lines, boundaries, areas, mission tasks and range fans, editable on the map, with a unit symbol at the center of the six graphics that carry one.

A surface analysis drawn by the Zaes METOC library: fronts, isobars, pressure centers and wind barbs
MIL-STD-2525E Appendix M · IHO S-100

METOC Graphics

Every weather and ocean graphic of 2525E Appendix M, and the IHO S-412 marine weather warnings and S-411 ice charts: fronts, isobars, wind barbs, station plots, ice, depth and mine warfare bottom descriptors.

One engine underneath every library

The libraries share an open source drawing engine and editor, @zaes/symbology-engine and @zaes/symbology-editor, both MIT on npm. Each library supplies what its standard says; the engine draws it the same way on every map.

GeoJSON in, GeoJSON out

A symbol or graphic is one feature with its points and its properties. Nothing about the view is saved, so a file opens the same on any map.

Any map library

OpenLayers and MapLibre in the open source libraries, flat or tilted over terrain; Cesium through an add-on. The core needs no map library, so it runs in Node or a worker too.

One editor

Draw, select, move, reshape, resize, rotate, undo and redo, with the same gestures in every library and on every map.

Drawn together

The libraries meet where the standards do: a security operation's tactical graphic carries the unit symbol the military symbols library draws, through a provider either side can swap.

Take the same graphics further

Commercial add-ons from Zaes take a library's graphics, and the same saved files, onto a 3D globe, into TAK and into ArcGIS. They are licensed by contract, separately from the MIT libraries, and each library's page lists its own.

Cesium 3D

Commercial

Graphics draped over terrain and 3D Tiles, point symbols upright on leader lines, and the same editor as the 2D maps. For Tactical Graphics and METOC.

TAK

Commercial

Cursor on Target for every TAK client, WinTAK and ATAK plugins that draw the graphics exactly, data packages and live TAK Server sync. For Tactical Graphics and METOC.

ArcGIS

Commercial

Tactical graphics in the ArcGIS Maps SDK for JavaScript. Military symbols place on ArcGIS maps from the open source library itself.

Exchange and feeds

Commercial

NVG and C2SIM exchange for tactical graphics, and official weather analyses and observations as METOC graphics.

Building a map that needs symbology?Tell us the standards, the map engine and where the symbols have to go. We can say which libraries cover it, set up an add-on evaluation and help with the integration.
Discuss a project

Start with the open source libraries

Every library is free under the MIT license, documented, and has a live sample to try in the browser.