Get started with Military Overlay

Military Overlay creates and manages symbolized features supporting military planning and operations and command and control systems. The symbols are build from symbology standards designed to support interoperability in joint militaries where information is distributed and disseminated across service, organizational, and echelon boundaries. Symbols created are from the MIL-STD-2525 and APP-6 family of standards.

The symbols created represent units, equipment, installations, activities, and meteorological events. Two types of symbols are created with Military Overlay: unit symbols and tactical graphic symbols. Unit symbols are icon-based symbols representing units, equipment, and installations and are comprised of a frame, colored fill with an icon, and modifiers/amplifiers surrounding the frame. Tactical graphic symbols representing actions, tasks, and graphic control measures, such as avenues of approach, landing zones, and check points. Both of these types of symbols are constructed with an alpha-numeric, or numeric Symbol Identification Code (SIDC). The SIDC used to represent each unique combination of base symbol and graphic modifiers vary depending on the military symbology standard on which they are based.

The following are the current supported military symbology standards:

• MIL-STD-2525D
• APP-6(B)

The following sections and topics describe how Military Overlay is used to create new military symbols and place them on the map as features, modify existing symbols, create favorites, and export the symbols for use in other projects or by colleagues.

Create military symbols

Depending on the goal, the general process for creating features with Military Overlay is as follows:

1. Open Military Overlay.
2. Set the desired symbology standard.
3. Search for the base symbol.
4. Customize the symbol by adding text modifiers and graphic modifiers.
5. Add the symbol to the map as a feature.
6. Save edits.

The following sections in this topic and in related topics explain each step in further detail.

Open Military Overlay

Creating, modifying and managing symbols happens in Military Overlay. Open Military Overlay by following these steps:

1. On the Map tab, in the Features group, click Edit .
2. On the Edit tab, click Military Overlay in the Features group

   The Military Overlay pane opens with the Create/Edit tab active.

Set the symbology standard

Before creating symbols on the map, first set the military symbology standard to use. This will determine the reference set for the SIDC.

Set the symbology standard by following these steps:

1. Open Military Overlay.
2. Click the Settings tab.
3. Select the Military Symbology Standard option.
   • MIL-STD-2525D
   • APP-6(B)
4. Click Apply.

Once the standard is set, all symbols and SIDCs created in Military Overlay will use this standard.

Note:

If the Military Symbology Standard option is changed in a project, a new feature class will be created in the target geodatabase. This is to separate the symbols created with different standards as the SIDCs will not match.

Set the target geodatabase

By default, the features created with the Military Overlay will go into the project default geodatabase. Complete the following steps to change the target geodatabase:

1. Open the Military Overlay.
2. Click the Settings tab.
3. Click Browse .

   Select Geodatabase appears.

4. Browse to the target geodatabase.
5. Click OK.
6. Click Apply.