For the development of millimeter wave imaging systems, it is important to be able to simulate some representative scattering configurations. Typically, Gaussian beams are used in active imaging systems. Since these beams only illuminate a spatially limited region, many objects can be treated as infinitely long 2D (in)homogenous cylinders. However, the incident Gaussian beams have a 3D character. Therefore, a dedicated 2.5D scattering simulator was developed. In this paper, simulation results obtained with this simulator are compared to measurements obtained from a bi-static microwave set-up and from a W-band millimeter wave set-up. Comparison of simulations and measurements proves that the 2.5D algorithm is a good simulation tool to study scattering of long inhomogeneous cylinders, illuminated by 3D plane waves or 3D Gaussian beams under different elevation angles.