As for the problem that there occur warpage and deformation in the selective laser melting (SLM) forming process, a three-level progressive model of heat source-locality-structural parts is established and the layer by layer building process in SLM forming is simulated by the birth-death element method. The inherent strain is applied layer by layer to obtain the deformation prediction results of SLM forming of macroscopic structural parts. The comparison between the simulation results and the actual molded parts shows that the inherent strain finite element method can be used to effectively predict the deformation of SLM forming parts.