Physically based simulations are valuable tools for understanding the chemical and physical mechanisms responsible for spatial non-uniformities in films produced by chemical vapor deposition systems. In this talk, an alternative will be presented to the "traditional" (e.g., CFD-based) approaches to high-fidelity equipment simulation. This work was motivated by the need for flexible simulation tools that allow rapid evaluation of reactor design choices and that interface readily with available optimization, process control, and numerical analysis tools. An object-oriented framework was created to generate modular simulation elements corresponding to CVD reactor physical components, as well as simulator elements derived from the abstraction of boundary-value problem based model solution (global spectral) methods and the other numerical methods necessary to solve the nonlinear equation models. The role of information technology issues and distributed computing concepts in implementing this framework will be presented. Results of our simulation-based design and prototype testing of the Programmable Chemical Vapor Deposition reactor system, a highly-controllable CVD system under development at UMd, and our interaction in redesigning CVD systems with an industrial research partner will be discussed. It will be shown that the flexibility built in to the simulation methodology from the outset is critical to enabling a relatively rapid simulation/experimental-evaluation/redesign cycle in these CVD reactor design and construction projects.