Abstract: In order to solve the space layout optimization problem of ship cabin efficiently,an interactive lay-out design and optimization method based on crowd simulation and tensor field is proposed.Firstly,the image based flow visualization algorithm is used to analyze the tensor field of the space layout domain,which calcu-lates the eigenvector and generates the road network of ship,and obtain the cabin space layout based on the road network.Secondly,the crowd simulation algorithm is used to simulate the behavioral activities of the crowd in the cabin space,and then to evaluate the mobility and coziness of the crowd in the ship cabin space.After obtaining a series of road network of ship and results of crowd simulation,the mapping relationship be-tween road width and road spacing in road network and mobility value and comfort value in crowd simulation results is established respectively.The results of crowd simulation are used as evaluation criterion to interac-tively and iteratively adjust the characteristic parameters of tensor field.The experimental results show that the proposed method effectively establishes the mapping relationship between tensor field and crowd simulation.Compared with genetic algorithm and analytic hierarchy process,it can quickly and efficiently design high-quality cabin space layout in line with human activities demand.