The research purpose of this paper is to develop map symbol design subsystem for our country's GIS software——Geostar

which is developed by research center of Wuhan Technical University of Surveying and Mapping. Under the technology of object-oriented

symbol classification and organization

graphical element classification design and symbol base structures have been designed

and symbol design software and dynamic link library of spatial information symbolization have been developed. We have designed a series of specifications for cartographic symbols of national standard topographic map by using our map symbol design software

and the results are satisfied to the demand of production. In this paper

we introduce mainly application problems of object-oriented technology in the course of design and developing of symbol design subsystem. The research shows that the technique route we adopted is correct

the developed software has favorable encapsulation and it is convenient to maintenance and expansion.