Patent ID: 7813905

Claim:
A simulation apparatus for simulating the conformation of a structure in the form of a multilayer film, comprising: a mesh dividing section dividing an analysis object region including the structure into a plurality of hexahedron mesh elements, each of which formed by a number of nodes and a number of grid lines that connects the nodes; a process condition setting section setting a calculation condition for a process to be performed on the structure; a boundary surface simulating section simulating a change in a shape of a boundary surface of the structure which change is caused from the process using the calculation condition set by said process condition setting section; a level value determining section determining level values each of which represents an absolute value of a distance between one of the nodes and the boundary surface on the basis of the shape of the boundary surface whose change has been simulated by said boundary surface simulating section; and a level value data retaining section retaining, for each of the nodes, the plural level values, serving as level value data, determined by said level value determining section in association with the boundary surface, the multilayer film having a plurality of the boundary surfaces, said level value determining section determining a plurality of level values representing the absolute values of distances between each said node and the plurality of boundary surfaces, one defined by each of a plurality of layers of the multilayer film wherein said level value determining section further judges whether the process corresponds to a process moving the boundary surface only inward or only outward or both inward and outward, wherein if the process corresponds to a process moving inward or outward, a natural number (NL) is increased by one such that NL=NL+1 and if the process corresponds to a process moving both inward and outward, NL is increased by two such that NL=NL+2; each of the grid lines of said plurality of hexahedron mesh elements being larger than the thickness of each of layers of the multilayer film, said mesh dividing section, said process condition setting section, said boundary surface simulating section, and said level value determining section being realized by a processor.