map.army FAQ — Common Questions Answered

This article includes some of the most common questions on the web application we have received since the start of the project.

Something is not working

I cannot add a symbol — the button does nothing, or is greyed out

You need an active layer first. Adding, editing, moving and deleting a military symbol all act on the active layer, so with none active there is nowhere for the change to go and the controls stop responding. This is the most common thing new users run into.

Click a layer’s name in the Layers panel to activate it. The layer list marks the active layer with a pencil; a checkmark instead means that layer is read-only and nothing will draw on it, so pick an editable one. A new session opens with one empty layer already active, so the button usually works straight away — it greys out once no editable layer is active, for instance after you select a read-only layer or remove the active one.

See MilX Layers for what the active layer is, and Place your first symbol for the full sequence.

The Symbol Editor button stays greyed out even with a layer active

That button needs an active layer and a selected symbol, because it edits one specific graphic. Click the symbol on the map first. The same applies to View and edit graphic’s coordinates.

I saved my work, but when I load the file nothing appears on the map

Check which file you saved. Only a MilX file (.milxlyz or .milxly) holds your overlays and can be opened again — save with Save MilX and reopen with Load MilX, both in the Layer Manager.

A KML / KMZ or NVG export is a one-way copy for handing your situation to another system. The app says so on the export dialog itself, and neither can be loaded back into map.army. If you load one anyway it arrives as a plain vector layer, not as your military symbols.

See Export Overlays for saving, and KML / KMZ Export for what that copy can and cannot do.

My layers vanished when I reloaded the browser

Your overlays live in the browser session only — there is no account and nothing is kept on the server, so a reload starts you with an empty map. This is by design, not a fault. Save to a MilX file as you work, and save again before anything you are unsure of. On a large situation, split the work across several layers so a single save is quicker.

The hex grid is broken — I get squares instead of hexagons

It is working. Zoomed out beyond a certain scale the hexagons are replaced by a rectangular grid carrying the same hex indices, so the references still hold; zoom in and the hexagons come back. The threshold follows your hex size setting rather than a fixed zoom, so raising the hex size keeps hexagons visible at a wider view. See Hexagonal Grid.

My coordinate grid has disappeared completely

You are almost certainly on UTM or GARS. Those two are the only grids that stop drawing entirely when you zoom far out — the others coarsen but always show something. Zoom in and the grid returns; nothing needs resetting. See What each grid does when you zoom out.

The base map does not look right

Can I switch off the grey country and place names?

No. Those labels are drawn into the base-map tiles by the map service the tiles come from, so there is no switch in map.army that can remove them on their own. If you need a label-light background, OpenTopoMap carries the fewest, and an image overlay laid over the base map gives you a fully neutral one. See Map display settings.

Part of the satellite imagery is blurred or pixelated

That blurring is in the imagery as the provider publishes it — some sites are obscured at source, and map.army draws the tiles exactly as it receives them, so it cannot be edited away in the app.

Two things do help. Switching to another base map often clears it, because providers obscure different places (see Base maps). Where you hold your own imagery of the area, load it as an image overlay and draw on that instead — see Import Overlays.

Running it on your own network

Some of the most common technical questions we get from users are:

Can the web application map.army run on a closed network?

Yes, it is possible to deploy the web application including the backend services on a closed network. The deployment runs on a standard web stack and is not Windows-specific — Linux + Apache (LAMP) is a supported alternative for organisations that prefer it. Specific OS and integration requirements (Active Directory, existing GIS server, WMTS/WMS providers) are scoped during the project intake. If you are interested in such a setup contact us via the contact form or email.

Is it possible to run map.army offline?

No — the web application cannot run offline. Without a connection the service worker serves a cached offline notice and the application itself does not start. Nothing is held locally for later use: there is no cache of map tiles, and symbols and MilX files are drawn and written by the backend services.
However, it is possible to deploy the web application including the backend services on a closed system. MSS (Military Symbol Service) and MilX (Military Exchange Format) have been deployed in several offline systems starting from simple map tools to C2, C4I or large military simulation applications. This deployment is usually done together with an industry partner or directly as a project with a governmental institution.

For individual users, the Windows desktop applications MssDraw and MssComposer by gs-soft AG provide a fully offline workflow for drawing and composing military situations. Contact us via the contact form or email for details.

If what you need is a .kmz for Google Earth or ESRI Earth, map.army exports one itself — see Export to KML and KMZ. That conversion runs on the MilX service, so it needs a connection like everything else.

Versions and licensing

Is there an Android or iPhone app to download?

There is no native app in any store, and none is planned — map.army is a web application. Open it in the browser, or install it from Chrome via Add to Home screen / Install app and it behaves like an installed app: its own icon, its own window, no browser chrome. That works on Android, iOS, Windows, macOS, Chrome OS and Linux alike. See Install the PWA.

Is there a professional or paid version of map.army?

Yes. A professional offering (sometimes referred to as map.army pro) is available on a project basis for industry partners and government customers. It adds capabilities not present in the free hosted demo, including:

  • Timeline & unit animation — units automatically follow planned routes between waypoints, with playback controls.
  • Blue Force Tracking (BFT) — real-time position sharing for participating units.
  • User administration & logins — multi-user collaboration with permissions.
  • Custom WMTS / WMS base maps — configurable map providers, including private / on-premise tile servers.

The pro version is not publicly sold or self-service. Contact us via the contact form or email to discuss requirements.

Live tracking and service operation

Can map.army show participants’ GPS positions in real time?

Not in the free hosted version. The browser can plot your own position (one-shot or continuous) via the standard browser geolocation API if you grant permission, but there is no shared “blue force tracking” in the hosted app — your position is not relayed to other participants, and external GPS devices (SIM trackers, hardware beacons) cannot push their position into the map.

Real-time multi-user position sharing (BFT) and external-device integration are part of the map.army pro offering and require a project-scoped deployment — see the professional or paid version answer above.

Is the hosted map.army monitored, and are maintenance windows announced?

Yes. Planned maintenance is announced in-app before the window starts and typically affects only a few minutes of partial availability — there is no separate public status page or mailing list to subscribe to.

Unplanned outages (hardware failure, upstream incident) do happen and are not announced in advance. If your work depends on uninterrupted availability, plan for it: save your work to .milxlyz regularly (see Layers → Export Overlays) and consider a closed-network deployment if you need controlled SLAs (see Can the web application map.army run on a closed network? above).

Data, formats and technology

Can I change the symbol of a feature after importing a KML layer and converting it to MilX?

Yes. A KML carries no military symbology, so every converted feature arrives with a generic base symbol — but you can change it yourself. Select the graphic, open the MSS Symbol Editor, and use Base Symbol… to search for the symbol you want. To do a batch, set one graphic correctly, copy it, select the others on the map and paste. See Symbol Editor.

The app refused to replace my symbol — “Incompatible MSS Symbols”

The replacement has to be the same shape of graphic as the one it replaces: a single-point symbol for a single-point symbol, a multi-point graphic for a multi-point graphic with the same kind of point geometry. When it is not, nothing is changed and you get that message. Single-point symbols swap freely; a free-form line or area — which is what a converted KML line or polygon becomes — can only be exchanged for another free-form line or area.

What technology is used to build map.army?

For development we are using Angular (TypeScript). However, most of the ‘brain’ of the application lives in services reached over REST. This includes the Military Symbology, where the web application relies on the MSS (Military Symbol Service) and MilX (Military Exchange Format) Web Services.
You can find the full list of technologies used on the Copyright & Licenses page.

Can MSS (Military Symbol Service) and MilX (Military Exchange Format) Web Services be used by others?

Yes, we have a growing list of industry partners, developing in many different environments, who base their implementation of Military Symbology on MSS and MilX. This includes developers of simple map tools to C2, C4I or large simulation applications. If you require more information contact us via the contact form or email.

Who makes it, and why

We are regularly asked the following:

Who is developing map.army?

The web application including the backend services for rendering and exchanging military symbology is being developed by gs-soft AG .

Why do you develop map.army?

The goal of developing the web applications hosted on map.army and symbol.army is to showcase what is possible using the latest development technologies available. In addition, we use the web applications as a test environment to bring our solution and especially the backend services to all type of devices and operating systems.
We see this as well as an opportunity to constantly improve our backend services (MSS - Military Symbol Service) and MilX (Military Exchange Format) which are used by many industry partners to provide military symbology and the version independent exchange of military symbology between systems.

How it compares with other systems

Is the web application on map.army a free alternative to military applications as SitaWare, ArcGIS or Luciad?

Yes, we are hosting the web applications on map.army and symbol.army free of charge, so that anyone can learn and practise the use of military symbology. However, we do not see ourselves as competitors of these large and expensive systems.

What is the main difference between ATAK (CivTAK) and map.army?

Map.army is a demo project showcasing the Military Symbol Service (MSS) and the Military Exchange Format (MilX) developed by gs-soft AG. The web application focuses on operational planning (OP) and after action review (AAR), with the goal of running on any device. Map.army demonstrates the interoperability of products generated in the web application with command and control systems (C2, C3, C4I, …), training simulators or other planning software in an existing defense environment.
ATAK/CivTAK, WinTAK, WebTAK and TAKServer (collectively, TAK) is a set of geospatial collaboration tools. The standalone system is developed by US DoD funded companies and provides functionalities for the mission command for units and teams which allows for precision targeting, intelligence on surrounding land formations, navigation, and generalised situational awareness.

Can map.army exchange data with ATAK / CivTAK / WinTAK?

There is no reliable MilX ↔ ATAK exchange path today. KMZ exported from map.army (see Export to KML and KMZ) can be opened in Google Earth and ESRI Earth, but ATAK clients consume KMZ only partially and the military symbology gets degraded or lost in the round-trip. We are watching this area; if you have a specific interoperability scenario please contact us via the contact form so it can inform future work.

Custom maps and reuse

Can I use map.army with a custom or fictional map background (e.g. for a wargame or roleplaying scenario)?

Yes. map.army can render any image as a background layer via the Image Overlay feature — see “Import Layer” in the Layers section. Common use cases include scanned campaign maps, historical maps, and fictional-nation maps for hobby/roleplaying purposes. A few practical notes:

  • Source images need to be a reasonable size — very large single images may fail to render on some browsers; split into tiles if needed.
  • Custom backgrounds do not replace the underlying georeferenced map; they sit on top of it as a layer. To remove the underlying base map’s POI markers, switch Map Type to OpenTopoMap in Options → Map Settings.
  • Image overlay layers are not embedded inside .milxlyz exports; share the image file separately if you need to share the layer with someone else.

For more advanced base-map customisation (e.g. swapping the underlying WMTS/WMS provider) see the professional version question above.

Can I use, modify, or redistribute the military symbols and map exports?

Yes, within sensible limits:

  • The MIL-STD-2525 standard itself is public. It is published by the US Department of Defense, and nobody owns the symbology it defines. What gs-soft AG owns is the MSS implementation — the rendering service and the symbol artwork it produces. Those rendered symbols may be used freely in personal, educational, commercial, and non-profit work, and no formal attribution notice is required for individual symbols (e.g. when pasted into a document or presentation).
  • map.army map exports (PDF, georeferenced image) carry the base-map credit drawn along the foot of the map. It must remain visible when the export is published; do not crop or paint over it.
  • iframe embeds of map.army carry the same attribution by design.
  • Modifications to individual symbols (recolouring, scaling, combining with other graphics in a separate drawing tool) are permitted. Redistributing the entire symbol set as a stand-alone product is not.
  • For uses that don’t fit these defaults — for example publishing a derived symbol library, or licensing the symbology into another product — contact us via the contact form.