Patent ID: 7606689

Claim:
A simulation apparatus for simulating a behavior of a flexible medium conveyed in a convey path constituted by mechanical components, comprising: a convey path setting unit configured to set a mechanical component model constituting the convey path based on a kind of information of the mechanical component and attribute information of the mechanical component which are inputted by an input device; a flexible model setting unit configured to set a flexible medium model corresponding to the flexible medium, and to set a position and a direction of an obverse surface of the flexible model, according to input from the input device, wherein one surface on the flexible medium is composed of a coated layer or toner layer, and the flexible medium model exhibits different stiffnesses against flexural deformation in different bending directions; a unit configured to simulate the behavior of the flexible medium conveyed in the convey path based on the mechanical component model and the flexible medium model by using a processing unit in the simulation apparatus; and a display control unit configured to control a display device to display an image indicating the simulated behavior of the flexible medium, wherein the position and direction of the obverse surface of the flexible model is shown in the image.