The basic principles of infrared imaging simulation was introduced, and a method for generating infrared images from visible images based on Vega was discussed. By the proposed method, the Creator was used to establish a 3D gemetric model and to realize a texture mapping, then the Texture Material Mapper(TMM) was applied to modelling for infrared materials. Furthermore, by using the Mat software, the atmospheric attenuation was calculated. A characteristic model of sensor was established by SensorWorks and infrared images were generated with photoelectric conversions. Finally, Apache AH6 helicopter was used in infrared simulation in this paper. The results show that the module established by Vega sensor has advantages in effective modeling, low costs, and the method is suitable for engineering practice.