Patent ID: 6950787

Claim:
A flexible medium transport simulation apparatus which simulates transport of a sheet-like flexible medium in a transport mechanism and three-dimensionally displays the simulated transport, the apparatus comprising: a flexible medium setting section for setting the length and the width of said flexible medium as dimensional information, the length being a measurement in a transport direction in which the flexible medium is transported and the width being a measurement in a widthwise direction which is perpendicular to the transport direction with respect to a plane on which said flexible medium is transported; a transport path setting section for setting a three-dimensional transport path covering a widthwise deviation of said flexible medium, along which path said flexible medium is transported in said transport mechanism; a travel amount information input section for inputting travel amount information about an amount of travel of said flexible medium; a simulation section for simulating the transport of said flexible medium carried out by said transport mechanism, by using a three-dimensional mechanism model of said transport mechanism being constructed inside said simulation section, wherein said simulation section handles said flexible medium as a three-dimensional model, the model being constituted by interconnecting a plurality of strip-shaped members so as to be rotatable about an axis parallel to said widthwise direction, said simulation section comprising: a position/posture computation section which computes a three-dimensional transport position of said flexible medium along the three-dimensional transport path, and also computes a two-dimensional posture of said flexible medium in a plane orthogonal to the widthwise direction, on the basis of the dimensional information, which is set by said flexible medium setting section, of the three-dimensional transport path, which is set by said transport path setting section, of the travel amount information, which is input by said travel amount information input section, and of said three-dimensional model; and a three-dimensional image preparation section which prepares a three-dimensional image of said flexible medium on the basis of the three-dimensional transport position or the two-dimensional posture, which is computed by said position/posture computation section, of the dimensional information, which is set by said flexible medium setting section, and of said three-dimensional model, and outputs the three-dimensional image as the result of the simulation; a display for displaying the transport of said flexible medium; and a display control section for controlling said display so as to display a result of the simulation performed by said simulation section.