The process parameters of atmospheric plasma spraying (APS) influence the coating formation and properties of partially yttria stabilized zirconia (PYSZ) thermal barrier coatings (TBCs) for gas turbine applications. Simulation can be used to investigate this dependency and to design the coating process for a targeted production of TBCs. A whole process simulation was realized by modeling the sub-processes plasma torch, plasma free jet, powder particles characteristics and coating formation with interfaces between them. The coating formation can be described by different model approaches with different physical assumptions and with the consideration of different geometric scales.  One approach is the simulation of single powder particles hitting the substrate surface. This approach is realized by a computer fluid dynamic (CFD) approach, a special volume of fluid (VOF) multiphase approach. Due to the microscale character of this approach, only a limited number of single particles can be simulated in a reasonable calculation time. An alternative macroscale FEM-model-approach is applied in the coating formation simulation. A group of particles is pooled in a splash dependent on the pre-calculated particle distribution in front of the substrate. The splash deposition is modeled by an activation of pre-deactivated finite elements. The shape and the initial temperature inside the splash is obtained from the plasma jet and the powder particles simulation. A third modeling approach is applied to calculate effective mechanical and thermodynamical coating properties dependent on the experimentally obtained or calculated microstructure of the PYSZ-TBC, which is based on different homogenization methods. The application of the three simulation approaches in the whole process simulation of atmospheric plasma spraying is discussed, advantages and disadvantages are elucidated. Simulation and experimentally obtained results are presented for a variation of process parameters. Missing links in the multiscale approach are detected to make suggestions for future modeling and simulation work.