Military Symbols

A Figma plugin that draws NATO APP-6E (STANAG 2019 Edition E) military map symbols as real, editable vector layers — not images. Pick an entity, set the affiliation and echelon, insert. The 30-character SIDC is stored on every layer, so any symbol you insert can be reopened, restyled or re-affiliated later without rebuilding it.

Everything runs locally. The plugin makes no network requests: the renderer and the full APP-6E catalogue are bundled into the plugin itself.

Features

• 1 674 selectable entities across the 20 APP-6E symbol sets (land, air, space, sea, subsurface, mine warfare, control measures, activities, SIGINT, cyberspace), plus 2 835 sector modifiers, all searchable by name. The catalogue holds 1 721 entity codes in total; the 47 the standard has withdrawn are kept so that old SIDCs still decode, marked {Disused}, and hidden from search. The same is true of 202 of the 2 835 sector modifiers.
• 231 built-in presets — a curated shelf of ready-made symbols in 12 categories, on the Build tab under Start from a preset. Every one is verified in CI to draw a real icon.
• Build tab — live preview, every SIDC field as a labelled control, and the raw SIDC editable by hand.
• Browse tab — a thumbnail sheet of a whole symbol set; multi-select and insert.
• Batch tab — paste a list of SIDCs, or expand one symbol into an affiliation series, an echelon ladder, a status series or a whole symbol-set sheet.
• ORBAT tab — type an indented outline and get a laid-out order of battle: one symbol per unit, echelons and affiliations inherited down the tree, connectors drawn between them.
• Canvas tab — re-open, restyle or change the affiliation of symbols already inserted, in place.
• Component sets — one click produces a component set with a variant per affiliation.
• Text amplifiers — 27 amplifier fields, inserted as genuine Figma text layers (or flattened to outlines if you would rather not depend on a font).
• Grid, row, stacked or into-the-selected-frame layout, optional captions, optional wrapper frame, exact target height in pixels, and seven colour modes including monochrome.

Look and feel

The panel is styled in the Nofolios house language: Inter, the #5A4EFF brand indigo with the #EEA0FF accent, pill chips and tabs, gradient primary actions, and the 4px brand rule across the top of the panel. Every colour lives as a token in src/ui/styles.css.

The panel is light only. It does not invert for Figma's dark theme, so it reads as a white Nofolios surface whichever theme the editor is in.

Install (local, unpublished plugin)

You need the Figma desktop app (development plugins cannot be imported from the browser) and Node.js 20 or newer.

git clone <this repository>
cd Military-Symbol
npm install
npm run build          # writes dist/code.js and dist/ui.html

Then, in the Figma desktop app:

1. Plugins → Development → Import plugin from manifest…
2. Choose manifest.json at the root of this repository.
3. The plugin appears under Plugins → Development → Military Symbols.

Re-run npm run build after changing any source file, or leave npm run watch running and just relaunch the plugin.

The plugin runs in Figma Design only — manifest.json declares "editorType": ["figma"], because components and variants exist only on that surface.

npm run package produces a flat zip under dist/ for handing the built plugin to someone else; they import its manifest.json the same way.

Quick start (60 seconds)

1. Run the plugin. The Build tab opens on a friendly infantry platoon.
2. Under Entity, press All sets, then type tank in the search box and pick Tank (Land Equipment). The preview updates immediately and the symbol set follows the entity.
3. Set Affiliation to Hostile / Faker.
4. Under Amplifiers, set Echelon / mobility to Tracked.
5. Open Text amplifier fields and put T-72 in V — Type.
6. Press Insert symbol. The symbol lands at the centre of your viewport, selected, with its SIDC saved on the layer.

In a hurry, skip steps 2–4: open Start from a preset on the Build tab and pick one of the 231 ready-made symbols instead.

Then try Variants next to the insert button: the same symbol becomes a component set with one variant per affiliation.

Preview sheet

assets/preview.svg — shown above — is generated, not hand-drawn:

npm run preview        # build/make-preview.mjs -> assets/preview.svg

It renders through the same milsymbol configuration the plugin uses, and refuses to write the file if any symbol on it stops drawing a real icon, so it cannot quietly drift away from what the plugin produces.

Documentation

Document	What is in it
docs/USAGE.md	Task-by-task guide: build, presets, search, batch, ORBAT, variants, re-edit, style recipes
docs/SIDC.md	The 30-character SIDC explained, every enumeration, worked examples
docs/DEVELOPMENT.md	Build, test, debug, verify and package the plugin
docs/VERIFICATION.md	Which claims about the standard were tested, and how
THIRD-PARTY.md	Bundled dependencies and their licences

Standards

• NATO STANAG 2019 / APP-6E — Joint Symbology, Edition E. This is the symbology the plugin emits by default; SIDCs carry the version digits 14.
• MIL-STD-2525E — the US equivalent. The two differ for a handful of glyphs; the Standard setting switches the drawing rules, and version digits 13 identify a MIL-STD-2525E SIDC.

The plugin is an unofficial tool. It is not endorsed by NATO or by any defence organisation, and it is not a substitute for the published standard. Symbols are drawn as accurately as the underlying renderer allows; check anything that has to be authoritative against APP-6E itself.

Licence and credits

This plugin is MIT licensed — see LICENSE.

• Symbology is rendered by milsymbol 3.x by Måns Beckman — MIT.
• The entity and modifier catalogue is generated at build time from milstandard-e — MIT.
• The plugin UI is built with Preact — MIT.

Full licence texts and copyright lines are in THIRD-PARTY.md.