JP2014225203A - Design support program, design support method, and design support device - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To solve the problem in which: is has been difficult to quantitatively grasp how slight deviation in conveyance of a recording medium changes on the entire conveyance path from the feeding of paper to the ejection of paper, while specifying the cause and position of the occurrence of an error.SOLUTION: There is provided a device that simulates the behavior of a recording medium being conveyed on a conveyance path, and includes means for deriving, from a result of the simulation, a conveyance error indicating the deviation from an ideal state when the recording medium is conveyed on the conveyance path, and means for displaying the derived conveyance error.

Description

  The present invention relates to a design support program for optimally designing a conveyance path by analyzing the behavior of paper conveyed in a conveyance path in an image forming apparatus such as a copying machine or an LBP by computer simulation.

  Examining the function of the design under various conditions before actually creating the product in the design of the conveyance path can reduce the man-hours required for manufacturing and testing the prototype, thereby reducing the development period and cost. Patent Document 1 and Patent Document 2 have been proposed as techniques for simulating the behavior of paper in the transport path for such purposes. In the design support systems of Patent Documents 1 and 2, paper is expressed by a plurality of elements (small areas) by the finite element method, contact determination with a guide or a roller in a conveyance path is performed, and a motion equation is numerically solved. Thus, the conveyance resistance and contact angle between the paper and the guide are evaluated.

  In addition, a method for improving the calculation speed by more simply expressing paper with a mass and a spring has been proposed (for example, Non-Patent Document 1).

  In solving the paper motion, the equation of motion is set up as described above, the time to be analyzed is divided into time steps having a finite width, and the unknown acceleration, velocity, and displacement are sequentially applied from time 0 to each time step. This is achieved by numerical time integration. As methods used for the numerical analysis, the Euler method, the Newmark β method, the Wilson θ method and the like are widely known.

JP 2000-222454 A Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 11-195052

Katsuhito Sudoh, "Modeling a String from Observing the Real Object" Proc. Of Int. Conf. On Virtual Systems and Multimedia (VSMM2000), pp. 544-553, (2000)

  By utilizing the design support system as described above, it is possible to detect a problem on the path such that the recording medium is caught by the guide or stopped due to slippage of the roller in a path having a large conveyance load. However, the design problem is not limited to such defects that can be visually confirmed, and a slight conveyance error of the recording medium often becomes a problem.

  For example, as shown in FIG. 1A, when a non-uniform conveyance resistance occurs in the direction perpendicular to the conveyance direction indicated by the arrow (the width direction of the recording medium 11), the recording medium 11 is conveyed. It tilts on the way. FIG. 1B is a view of the part (a) as viewed from the side. The cause of the non-uniform conveyance resistance is mainly mechanical parts such as the ribs 12 and the contact sensor 13 in the conveyance path. Further, as shown in FIG. 1 (c), the roller alone rotates or misaligns due to factors such as non-uniform pressure applied to the roller pair and the axial deflection due to the influence of the deflection of the shaft. A transport error such as a lateral shift may occur. Alternatively, as shown in FIG. 1D, the roller alone may cause a transport error such as rotation or lateral deviation due to factors such as the parallelism of the axes of the roller pair being broken.

  If there is such a transport error, the image transferred to the recording medium as a result will not be accurately placed on the target position, and the printing accuracy such as tilt with respect to the recording medium and image distortion will deteriorate. FIG. 2 shows an example of a pattern printed on a recording medium. In FIG. 2A, a black square pattern is printed at the target position of the recording medium 21, but in FIG. 2B, it can be seen that a deviation or distortion occurs with respect to the target position. Such an error in printing accuracy is an important problem because a level shift of 0.1 mm from the ideal state determines the quality of the product.

  Therefore, it is required to evaluate the conveyance error of the recording medium directly related to the printing accuracy by using a simulation and lead to the optimum design.

  Also in the conventional simulation technique disclosed in Patent Document 1 and the like, information on the position and speed of the recording medium at a certain time can be obtained. However, in order to evaluate the error amount in units of 0.1 mm, detailed analysis of the result using another tool such as a spreadsheet is required, such as geometrically calculating the tilt amount from the coordinate value at a certain time. In addition, it is difficult to quantitatively understand how the slight conveyance deviation of the recording medium changes in all the conveyance paths from paper feed to paper discharge, and at the same time, it is difficult to specify the location and cause of the error. Met.

  The apparatus according to the present invention is a device that simulates the behavior of a recording medium being transported along a transport path, and based on the result of the simulation, a deviation from an ideal state when the recording medium is transported along the transport path. And a means for deriving the transport error, and a means for displaying the derived transport error.

  According to the design support simulation method according to the present invention, it is possible to specify the location and the cause of occurrence of the tilt or misalignment of the recording medium in all the transport paths from paper feeding to paper ejection.

FIG. 6 is a diagram illustrating a state in which a recording medium is displaced in a conveyance path. It is a figure which shows an example of the pattern printed on the recording medium. It is a block diagram which shows an example of the hardware constitutions of a design support apparatus. It is a flowchart which shows the rough flow of the process in a design support apparatus. It is a figure which shows an example of UI screen displayed on a display part according to the user instruction | indication which starts execution of simulation. It is a figure which shows an example of the sub screen for defining a recording medium. It is a figure which shows an example of the subwindow for setting conveyance conditions. It is a flowchart which shows the detail of exercise | movement calculation. It is a figure which shows a mode that the result of a simulation is displayed by animation. It is a figure explaining a mode that the inclination of a recording medium is calculated | required. It is a figure explaining a mode that the position shift of a recording medium is calculated. It is a figure which shows an example at the time of outputting a conveyance error by the graph display. It is a figure explaining the state of the inclination of the recording medium which can be read from a graph It is a figure which shows a mode that the inclination of a recording medium changes before and after passage of a correction mechanism. It is an example of the table | surface which listed the information which shows the inclination of a graph, and the information which shows the level | step difference of a graph according to roller. It is a figure which shows an example of the data table which summarized the amount of inclinations. It is a figure which shows an example of the message which notifies that big inclination amount was derived | led-out.

  Hereinafter, embodiments of the present invention will be specifically described with reference to the drawings.

  FIG. 3 is a block diagram illustrating an example of a hardware configuration of an information processing apparatus (design support apparatus) that executes a design support simulation according to the present embodiment. The design support apparatus includes a CPU 301, a display unit 302, a storage unit 303, a ROM 304, a RAM 305, a keyboard 306, and a pointing device 307.

  The CPU 301 is a central processing unit that controls the entire design support apparatus.

  The display unit 302 displays various input conditions and analysis results in the control processing executed by the CPU 301.

  The storage unit 303 is configured with a hard disk or the like, and stores analysis results by the CPU 301 and the like.

  The ROM 304 stores a control program (including a design support program according to the present embodiment) executed by the CPU 301, various application programs, data, and the like.

  The RAM 305 functions as a work area for temporarily storing data when the CPU 301 performs processing while controlling each unit based on a control program.

  The keyboard 306 is used for a user to input various input conditions.

  The pointing device 307 is configured with a mouse, a trackball, and the like.

  The design support apparatus according to the present embodiment can execute a recording medium conveyance simulation (hereinafter simply referred to as “simulation”). In the simulation in this embodiment, the behavior of the recording medium being conveyed based on the defined conveyance path and recording medium is obtained by motion calculation and reproduced on a computer.

  FIG. 4 is a flowchart illustrating a rough flow of processing in the design support apparatus according to the present embodiment. This series of processing is implemented by reading a computer-executable program describing the following procedure from the ROM 304 onto the RAM 305 and then executing the program by the CPU 301.

  In step 401, a series of pre-processing for executing a simulation, such as defining a conveyance path, defining a recording medium, and setting conveyance conditions, is executed.

  In step 402, a simulation according to the set transport condition, that is, a motion calculation indicating the behavior of the recording medium in the set transport path is performed.

  In step 403, the simulation result, that is, the calculated displacement and velocity of the coordinates of the recording medium (the coordinates of all the nodes of all the elements) are read.

  In step 404, a conveyance error indicating what angle or positional deviation (lateral deviation) the recording medium is sandwiched with respect to the axial direction of each roller constituting the conveyance path is derived.

  In step 405, the derived transport error is output as a time-series graph, for example.

  Each process as described above is executed in the design support apparatus. The design support apparatus according to the present embodiment includes a simulation condition setting unit, a simulation execution unit, a calculation result reading unit, a transport error deriving unit, and a transport error output unit as processing units for executing the above steps. .

  Next, the details of the simulation executed by the design support apparatus according to the present embodiment will be described in detail.

  First, simulation condition setting in step 401 will be described.

  FIG. 5 is a diagram illustrating an example of a UI screen displayed on the display unit 202 in response to a user instruction to start execution of simulation. The UI screen shown in FIG. 5 includes a menu bar 501 for switching processing contents, a graphic screen 502 on which a defined transport route and simulation results are displayed, and a command field 503 for displaying a message to the user and inputting numerical values as necessary. Consists of. By selecting each button in the menu bar 501, a submenu of each process is displayed.

  The “file” button is a button for saving / managing setting conditions of the executed simulation.

  The “transport route” button is a button for defining (setting) a transport route to be simulated. When this button is pressed, data of 3D shape information indicating the transport route is read from the 3D CAD. It is. The read three-dimensional shape of the transport path is displayed on the graphic screen 502. The highlighted display of the “conveyance path” button in FIG. 5 indicates that it is being selected. The data of the three-dimensional shape information indicating the conveyance path may be taken in via the “file” button described above.

When the “recording medium” button is selected, a sub-screen for registering the recording medium is displayed. The user selects the size and type of the recording medium from the displayed sub-screen. Thereby, a recording medium to be simulated is defined. FIG. 6 is a diagram showing an example of a sub-screen for defining a recording medium. The user selects the size of the recording medium to be used in the size selection field 601, and selects the type of recording medium to be used in the type selection field 602. select. In the example shown in FIG. 6, A4 is selected as the size of the recording medium, and the paper (basis weight 104 g / m ² , thickness 124 μm) specified by the model name “GF-C104” is selected as the recording medium type. ing. When the size and type of the recording medium are selected in this way and the OK button 603 is pressed, a database stored in advance in the storage unit 303 is called, and information on the selected recording medium, specifically, Young's modulus Information such as thickness and density is stored in the RAM 305. The selected recording medium is divided into a plurality of elements (in the case of A4 size, approximately 2500 squares of 5 mm square) and modeled by the finite element method.

  When the “transport condition” button is selected, a sub-window for setting a transport condition for each roller constituting the transport path selected by the “transport path” button is displayed. FIG. 7 is a diagram illustrating an example of a subwindow for setting the conveyance conditions. In the sub-window shown in FIG. 7, the user sets the transport conditions (here, setting items for driving start, driving end, and rotational speed) in units of rollers. A positive rotation speed value means forward rotation, and a negative value means reverse rotation. In the example of FIG. 7, 0 sec to 0.5 sec is normal rotation at 5.0 rps, 0.5 sec to 1.0 sec is normal rotation at 8.0 rps, 1.0 sec to 2.5 sec is stopped, 2.5 sec to 3.7 sec is reverse at 8.0 rps, and so on. Is set. In addition, selection of the target roller is specified by using a mouse or the like on the three-dimensional image of the conveyance path displayed in the graphic screen 502, or by specifying from a list in which all rollers are displayed. Made in

  When the “result display” button is selected, a pull-down menu or sub-window (not shown) for selecting a lower menu including an “animation” button and a “graph” button is displayed. “Animation” is a button for instructing the animation display that shows how the specified recording medium moves along the specified transport path, and “Graph” outputs the transport error obtained from the simulation result in a graph display. It is a button when doing.

  Next, execution of simulation (motion calculation) according to the design support program of the present embodiment will be described. In the execution of the simulation in step 402, the motion of the recording medium is calculated every predetermined time interval Δt (for example, 0.01 sec) from 0 sec for the calculation time (for example, 5 sec) set in the condition setting in step 401. FIG. 8 is a flowchart showing details of the motion calculation.

  In step 801, the CPU 301 sets initial values (initial acceleration, initial speed, initial displacement) necessary for performing the calculation after Δt seconds. In these values, the calculation result in the immediately preceding cycle is set as an initial value every time one cycle ends. Since the calculation result in the immediately preceding cycle does not exist at the time immediately after the start of processing, the initial value to be set is zero.

  In step 802, the CPU 301 determines one mass point from the mass points of the recording medium (nodes of individual elements arranged in a grid (in the above example, each vertex of a 5 mm square rectangle)), and the determined mass point Deriving the force that works on. Here, examples of the force acting on the mass point include a rotational moment, a restoring force represented by a tensile force, a contact force, a frictional force, gravity, an air resistance force, and a Coulomb force. Of these, rotational moment, tensile force, contact force, and friction force are indispensable, and other forces are optional, but a high-accuracy simulation can be achieved by considering all the above-mentioned forces. The above-described force acting on each mass point is calculated, and the resultant force (for example, 0.1 [N]) is finally derived as a force acting on the mass point.

  In step 803, the CPU 301 obtains the acceleration of the mass point after Δt seconds. Specifically, the force acting on the mass point obtained in step 802 is divided by the mass of the mass point, and the initial acceleration is added to the result of this division. Thereby, the acceleration (for example, 1.0e4 [mm / s2]) of the mass point after Δt seconds is obtained.

  In step 804, the CPU 301 obtains the speed of the mass point after Δt seconds.

  Specifically, by multiplying the acceleration obtained in step 803 by Δt and adding the initial speed to the result of this multiplication, the speed of the mass point after Δt seconds (for example, 1e−2 [mm / s]) Desired.

  In step 805, the CPU 301 obtains the displacement of the mass point after Δt seconds. Specifically, by multiplying the velocity obtained in step 804 by Δt and adding the initial displacement to the result of this multiplication, the displacement of the mass point after Δt seconds (for example, 3.0e-4 [mm]) is obtained. It is done.

  For the calculation of the physical quantity after a series of Δt seconds in each of the above steps, for example, methods such as the Kuter-merson, Newmark-β method, and Willson-θ method can be applied in addition to the Euler time integration method.

  In step 806, the CPU 301 determines whether there is an unprocessed mass point. If there is an unprocessed mass point, the process returns to step 801, and the processing after step 802 is repeated for the next mass point. On the other hand, if it is determined that all the mass points have been processed, the process proceeds to step 807.

  In step 807, the CPU 301 determines whether or not the calculation time has reached the set calculation time (5 sec in the above example). If not, the process returns to step 801, the value of Δt and the initial value are updated, and the same processing is repeated. If the set calculation time has been reached, this process ends.

  The result of the simulation every Δt seconds made in accordance with the setting conditions as described above is stored in the RAM 305 and used for derivation of a conveyance error described later.

(Display simulation results)
The simulation result shown in the flowchart of FIG. 8 can be confirmed by selecting the “animation” button. FIG. 9 is a diagram showing how the simulation result is displayed as an animation. When the “animation” button is selected by the user, a display control sub-window 900 is displayed. The behavior of the recording medium obtained by the simulation is displayed in the graphic screen 502 in response to operations on the playback button 901, the frame advance button 902, and the return to initial step button 903 in the sub window 900.

(Derivation of transport error)
Next, derivation of the conveyance error in step 404 will be described.
As already described with reference to FIG. 1, the recording medium may be inclined or laterally shifted while being conveyed. In this embodiment, the deviation from the ideal state of the recording medium that may occur in the process of being conveyed is evaluated by the amount of inclination and the amount of lateral deviation in each roller.

  FIG. 10 is a diagram for explaining how the inclination of the recording medium is obtained. As shown in FIG. 10A, the element (small area) of the portion of the recording medium 1002 sandwiched between the rollers 1001 is detected, and the angle formed between the detected element side and the shaft 1003 of the roller 1001. φ is required. FIG. 10B is an enlarged view of the roller portion. As shown in FIG. 10, the angle φ is obtained for all the elements sandwiched between the rollers, and the average value thereof is the inclination generated by the roller 1001. Derived as a quantity.

  FIG. 11 is a diagram for explaining how the positional deviation of the recording medium is obtained. As shown in FIG. 11, the distance d between the center line 1101 of the recording medium 1002 sandwiched between the rollers 1001 and the axial center position 1102 of the roller pair is obtained as the amount of positional deviation.

  The transport error (inclination amount and positional deviation amount) derived in step 404 is stored in the RAM 305.

  Next, the conveyance error output in step 405 will be described.

  FIG. 12 is a diagram illustrating an example when the transport error derived in step 404 is output in a graph display. By pressing the “graph” button described above, a graph as shown in FIG. 12 is displayed on the graphic screen 502. 12A is a graph showing the amount of inclination, and FIG. 12B is a graph showing the amount of lateral deviation. Since the recording medium is delivered with a plurality of rollers and a conveyance error is derived when each of the rollers passes, a waveform for each roller is displayed on the graph. Then, during the time when the recording medium is sandwiched simultaneously by the plurality of rollers, a plurality of waveforms are displayed in an overlapping manner.

  With such a graph, the user can confirm how much tilt and lateral deviation have occurred with respect to the recording medium at what time. In addition, such a graph enables the user to analyze various factors.

  An example is described below.

  FIG. 13A is a diagram illustrating an ideal conveyance state in the two rollers 1301 and 1302, and the inclination amount is zero. FIG. 13B is a diagram showing a state in which an inclination occurs in the middle, and it can be seen that the amount of inclination increases in the waveform 1303 as time passes. Such a waveform shows the inclination that occurs during conveyance with a single roller, and the cause is that the roller is tensioned due to rotation due to the loss of pressure balance of the roller and uneven conveyance resistance in the width direction. Possible slipping due to accidents. For example, suppose that the product quality target is to suppress the deviation of the image in the width direction of A3 paper (size conveyance direction 400 mm × width direction 298 mm) within 1 mm. In this case, the inclination must be kept within 0.193 °. The user can evaluate whether the conveyance path under design is good or bad by reading from the graph whether the inclination is 0.193 ° or more. In addition, since the time when the waveform gradient increases is a problematic location (roller), it is possible to pinpoint a portion having a problem in path design.

  FIG. 13C is a diagram illustrating a state in which the recording medium enters the downstream roller 1302 (for example, the registration roller) and at the same time, a large inclination is generated as compared with the upstream roller 1301 (for example, the pre-registration roller). It is. Comparing the waveform 1304 of the upstream roller 1301 and the waveform 1305 of the downstream roller 1302, it can be seen that the waveform 1305 has a larger inclination and a step is formed between the waveform 1304. The reason why such a level difference occurs is that the recording medium rushes into the roller 1302 on the downstream side while asymmetric deformation occurs in the width direction at the leading end of the recording medium due to the resistance to the leading end of the recording medium that is not uniform in the width direction. Etc. are considered. By grasping the occurrence of such tilt, the user can make the shape of the conveyance guide in the width direction of the recording medium symmetrical, or give a shape and driving conditions that form a loop between the rollers, and as much as possible between the rollers. It is possible to consider measures such as preventing tension.

  Furthermore, if the recording medium is tilted from the beginning by a certain amount and the change in the tilt before and after passing through the correction mechanism (change amount), the correction mechanism is functioning correctly. You can evaluate whether. As the correction mechanism, for example, the recording medium is brought into contact with the downstream roller stopped, and the downstream roller that has been pushed in from the upstream roller to form a predetermined loop is rotated and conveyed. There are things such as starting. In order to evaluate the performance of such a correction mechanism, it can be confirmed by a graph how much the inclination generated in the upstream roller can be corrected by the downstream roller. FIG. 14 is a diagram illustrating how the inclination of the recording medium changes before and after passing through the correction mechanism. In the example of FIG. 14, first, the leading end of the recording medium hits the stopped roller 1402 at the time of 1.23 seconds, and a loop is formed on the recording medium by being pushed by the upstream roller 1401 until 1.53 seconds. . Then, the downstream roller 1402 stopped at the time of 1.53 seconds is driven, and the change in the inclination of the recording medium in such a case is shown. In FIG. 14, the waveform of the thick line 1403 corresponds to the upstream roller 1401, and the waveform of the thin line 1404 corresponds to the downstream roller 1402. In FIG. 14A, the upstream roller 1401 has an inclination of 0.35 °, but the downstream roller 1402 is corrected to an inclination of 0.15 °. In FIG. 14B, the inclination is reduced by the upstream roller 1401 during loop formation. In this way, when the inclination changes during loop formation, it may be considered that the upstream roller 1401 pushing the recording medium slips and rotates. In this way, the tilt may be corrected by slipping. In FIG. 14C, the downstream roller 1402 also has an inclination of 0.32 °, and hardly changes from the inclination of the upstream roller 1403 of 0.35 °. This indicates that the pushing force by the upstream roller 1401 is insufficient and no loop is formed, and the correction cannot be performed well. Recording media vary from thin to thick, and such a simulation is effective in determining an appropriate loop amount and roller pressure that can be corrected for any type of recording medium.

  In the present embodiment, the case where the conveyance error such as the inclination obtained from the simulation result is output in the graph display has been described. For example, the numerical data obtained for each roller is displayed instead of the graph or in combination with the graph. You may let them. FIG. 15 is a table in which “the angle at the time of recording medium output−the angle at the time of input” indicating the inclination of the graph and “the difference in inclination amount from the front roller at the time of input” indicating the step of the graph are listed for each roller. It is an example. From the table according to FIG. 15, it is possible to grasp the occurrence of a large inclination in the roller B and the occurrence of the inclination of the tip of the conveyance guide from the roller C to the roller D.

  Furthermore, a data table that summarizes the derived transport errors may be displayed. FIG. 16 is a diagram illustrating a state in which a data table in which the tilt amounts are collected is displayed on the graphic screen 502. In the data table shown in FIG. 16, each transport roller is in a row and time is in a column, and a blank indicates that the recording medium is not sandwiched between the rollers at that time. In the example of FIG. 16, the cells are colored at places where the amount of inclination is large or where the difference between the inclination generated on the upstream roller when the recording medium front end is sandwiched between the rollers is large. By highlighting, it is easy to identify the problematic part. For example, since the inclination of the recording medium is increased from 0.02 ° to 0.31 ° between 1.4 seconds and 2.0 seconds on the conveyance roller A, it is highlighted (corresponding to the waveform 1303 in FIG. 13B). Further, when the inclination at the time of 2.2 seconds in the transfer roller is 0.45 °, the amount of inclination at the same time of the registration roller upstream thereof is 0.31 degrees, and the inclination changes. Therefore, similarly, a numerical value portion indicating the amount of inclination of the transfer roller is highlighted (corresponding to the step portion between the waveform 1304 and the waveform 1305 in FIG. 13C).

  Further, when the derived transport error is large, a message to that effect may be displayed to notify the user. FIG. 17 is a diagram illustrating a state in which a message notifying that a large amount of tilt has been derived is displayed on the graphic screen 502. In the example of FIG. 17, the fact that a large inclination exceeding a predetermined threshold (for example, 0.193 °) has occurred is displayed in the command column 503 along with the occurrence time.

  As described above, according to the design support simulation method according to the present embodiment, it is possible to accurately specify the position where the recording medium is tilted or laterally misaligned in the conveyance path from the paper feeding to the paper discharging, and the countermeasure is formulated. And effects can be easily and accurately evaluated.

(Other examples)
The present invention is also realized by executing the following processing. That is, software (program) for realizing the functions of the above-described embodiments is supplied to a system or apparatus via a network or various storage media, and a computer (or CPU, MPU, etc.) of the system or apparatus reads the program. It is a process to be executed.

Claims (11)

An apparatus for simulating the behavior of a recording medium being conveyed along a conveyance path,
Means for deriving a transport error indicating a deviation from an ideal state when the recording medium is transported along the transport path from the result of the simulation;
Means for displaying the derived transport error;
A device comprising:   2. The apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the means for deriving the transport error derives the transport error for each roller constituting the transport path.   The apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the transport error is a tilt amount or a lateral shift amount of the recording medium. The simulation is executed using a plurality of elements obtained by modeling the recording medium by a finite element method,
The means for deriving the conveyance error detects the element sandwiched between rollers constituting the conveyance path, and derives an angle formed by the side of the detected element and the axis of the roller as the inclination amount. The apparatus according to claim 3.   5. The apparatus according to claim 4, wherein the means for deriving the transport error further derives the difference between the center of the roller shaft and the center in the width direction of the recording medium as the lateral deviation amount.   The apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the display unit displays the derived transport error in a graph.   The apparatus according to claim 6, wherein the graph includes a waveform for each of the rollers.   6. The apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the display means displays the derived transport error in a data table showing each roller.   9. The display unit according to claim 1, wherein when the transport error derived by the transport error deriving unit exceeds a threshold value, the display unit displays a message notifying that effect. The device described in 1. A method of simulating the behavior of a recording medium being conveyed along a conveyance path,
Deriving a transport error indicating a deviation from an ideal state when the recording medium is transported along the transport path from the result of the simulation;
Displaying the derived transport error;
A method comprising the steps of:   The program for functioning a computer as an apparatus of any one of Claims 1 thru | or 9.