Abstract: Large scale topographic maps are the main branch of the maps.They play important roles in the fields of urban planning, engineering design and management etc.They are widely used with the development of digital surveying and mapping and GIS.Now the database of large scale topographic maps is oriented to two ways.The first emphasizes on the digital surveying and mapping that can satisfy the traditional cartography but not the information extracted and application for GIS.The second focuses on GIS, but is difficult to satisfy the traditional cartography.This contradiction leads to that two data versions are produced for both traditional cartography and GIS.This paper analyzes the reason of the contradiction.A new data model that can satisfy both cartography and GIS is considered to solve the problem.The structure of symbols of large scale topographic maps is analyzed deeply with OO analysis and design method, and a new oriented-symbol data model is given.