A method has been developed for modeling permalloy patterns for field access magnetic bubble devices, based on the distribution of poles rather than of magnetization. The present method has the advantage that the two dimensional distributions are of a single scalar quantity rather than two components of a vector quantity, which leads to numerical simplifications. The pole method also avoids the domain-continuum question and the question of uniqueness of magnetization distributions. The numerical simplification, reducing the size of the matrix that must be solved, leads to a shorter program implementation that makes it possible to address more complicated problems. The method takes into account permalloy-permalloy interactions between the nearby permalloy patterns of a periodic structure. The calculated potential profiles of a 3×15×0.4 μm3 rectangular bar are compared with the results of previous investigators. The versatility of this model is demonstrated by computing the potential profiles of a single chevron pattern used to propagate a cylindrical-shaped bubble domain and of a multiple chevron pattern used to transfer a stripe domain.