Creating a military feature from a SIDC

Typically, to add military features to a map, you use feature templates provided in Esri military feature layer packages on ArcGIS.com. No symbol identification code (SIDC) is required when you add features through these feature templates.

However, in some cases, you may have only a SIDC and want to make a symbol from it on a map. Or, you may just want to understand how ArcGIS translates SIDCs into symbols. In either case, the following procedure should help because it describes how to manually create military features in ArcMap from a SIDC. The procedure is divided into three main tasks:

• Determining whether an Esri feature template exists
• Creating a feature template
• Creating a feature on the map

Determining whether a feature template exists

Esri military feature layer packages come with many pre-defined feature templates. Aside from force units, most military features defined in military specifications supported by ArcGIS have a corresponding feature template in the main Esri military feature layer package, the Military Overlay layer package. This procedure describes how to determine whether or not a feature template exists in the layer package you are using.

Steps:

1. If you haven't already, in ArcMap, open the Esri military features layer package whose description most closely matches the types of military features you want to add to your map. For descriptions of Esri military feature layer packages and instructions on how to open them in ArcMap, see Opening military feature layer packages.
2. Determine which layer in your Esri military feature layer package is the appropriate one for the SIDC. For details, see Identifying which layer to use for a feature.
3. Start an edit session.

   The Create Features window appears, displaying all feature templates in the layers in the table of contents.

4. In the search box of the Create Features window, type the name of the military feature you want to create. For example, you may want to create a ground vehicle or a fire support station. If you are using the main Esri military feature layer package, the Military Overlay package, you'll find that ground vehicle doesn't return any results, while fire support station does. The search box is able to return results because of the tags that were placed on the feature templates when they were created. Unit, equipment, and installation symbols do not have feature templates created for them because of the large number of symbols and the high variablitly that is introduced with symbol modifiers. If you want to add a ground vehicle to your map, you'll have to create a feature template for it, using the following procedure. Otherwise, skip to Create a military feature from a SIDC.

Creating a feature template

If you couldn't find a feature template in the previous procedure, create a feature template using the this procedure, which shows you how to create the base of the symbol, then add its modifiers. Typically you'll use this procedure for force units.

Steps:

1. In the ArcMap table of contents, right-click on the layer you identified in step 2 above and click Edit Features > Define New Types of Features.

   The Define New Feature Type wizard appears.

2. In the first panel of the Define New Feature Type wizard, click the Change Symbol button.

   The Symbol Selector dialog box appears.

3. If you know the type of feature the SIDC code represents, such as armored infantry vehicle, type it into the search box. If you do not know the type, enter as many as you have of the first 10 characters (positions) of the SIDC into the search box. Characters 11 through 15 do not apply to the base symbol.

   For each symbol in the military specifications ArcGIS supports, Esri has included characters 1 through 10 as a tag on the associated military style file.

   Base symbols that meet the criteria you typed display in the search results area, as shown in the following image.

4. Click the symbol you want. The following image shows search results for a SIDC whose first eight characters are SFGPEVAI.
5. If the SIDC code has values in the symbol modifier positions (positions 11 and 12) and you want to add them to the feature template you are creating, continue to step 6. Otherwise, skip to step 12.
6. Click the Edit Symbol button.
7. In the Symbol Property Editor window, click the Import Layers button.

   A second Symbol Selector dialog box appears.

8. If you know what the modifier values in the SIDC represent, type it in the search box. For example, if your SIDC is SFGPEVAI--MOUSG and you know that MO (the characters in positions 11 and 12) represent a wheeled vehicle that has limited cross country ability, type Wheeled (Limited Cross Country. Or you can search using the symbol modifier portion of the SIDC by entering S----------MO into the search box.
9. In the search results area, click the modifier you want, then click OK.
10. Click OK to close the Symbol Property Editor.
11. Click OK to close the Symbol Selector dialog box.
12. In the Define New Feature Type window add a name, description, and tags as desired. Name, description, and tags become searchable properties of the feature template.
13. Click the Finish button to add the feature template to the Create Features window.

Creating a feature on the map

The following procedure describes how to create a feature on a map based on a feature template.

Steps:

1. Right-click the layer you want to add the feature to and select Edit Features > Start Editing. For example, you may want to add a feature to the Friendly Operations Line layer available in the Military Overlay layer pacakge.

   The Create Features window appears.

2. To create a symbol for a line feature, you start by searching for the SIDC, the name of the feature template, or one of its tags. For example, to create a symbol for a friendly Forward Line of Own Troops, search for GFGPGLF--- or Forward Line of Own Troops in the Create Features window.

   When you search for tactical graphics by SIDC, you must include a valid character in the standard identity position because all feature templates from the ArcGIS for Defense and Intelligence Team group page were tagged with a value in the standard identity position.

3. Click a tool on the Construction Tools window.
4. Use your cursor to click on the map to add the starting point of your line.
5. Continue to click for each vertex of the line.
6. After the last vertex has been added, right-click in the map and click Finish Sketch.

   A Forward Line of Own Troops feature is added to the map.

7. Optionally, you can type coordinates to create the line instead of using the cursor. Use these substeps to type coordinates for your feature.
   1. Right-click in the map and click Absolute X,Y.

      Use the drop-down arrow to select a different coordinate format.

   2. Type the coordinates for the starting point of the line and press Enter.
   3. Right-click again and click Absolute X, Y to enter the next point.
   4. Type the coordinates for the next point of the line and press Enter.
   5. Repeat step c and d until all of the coordinates are entered.
   6. . After the last vertex has been created, right-click and click Finish Sketch.

Use the same process to work with point symbols, such as the feature template for an ammunition supply point.

Steps:

1. Right-click Friendly Operations Point layer and select Edit Features > Start Editing

   The Create Features window appears.

2. To create a symbol for a point feature which has an existing feature template, you can start by searching for the name of the feature template, one of its tags, or the SIDC. To create a symbol for an Ammunition Supply Point, search for GFSPPAS-------X or Ammunitionin the Create Features window.
3. Select the feature template for Ammunition Supply Point.
4. Click a tool on the Construction Tools window.
5. Use your cursor to click on the map to add your feature.

   An Ammunition Supply Point feature is added to the map.

6. Optionally, you can type coordinates to create the point instead of using the cursor. Use these substeps to type coordinates for your feature.
   1. Right-click in the map and click Absolute X,Y.

      Use the drop-down arrow to select a different coordinate format.

   2. Type the coordinates of the point and press Enter.

To learn more about creating and editing new features, see the following topics:

• What is editing?
• Editing tutorial
• Creating lines and polygons
• Creating geodetic features

About military messages

Information about military operations and battlefield entities is often shared in the defense and intelligence communities using military messages that adhere to a military specification. Some of these messages, when transmitted, use a SIDC to convey information about a battlefield entity. One example of this kind of message may be a unit in the field reporting an observed enemy unit.

Message transmission and ingestion may vary from system to system, so understanding, how a user would manually translate a SIDC to a feature in ArcMap should help with the process. For an overview of the SIDC format and what type of information is contained in each position, see Identifying which layer to use for a feature.