Windows or Linux (Ubuntu). Preferably free, but cheap OK. Ideally, it'll be easy to use, and have templates for windows, toilets, sinks, showers, cupboards, etc.

Any ideas?

Google Sketchup is free and pretty easy to use. There are a bunch of models you can use in their '3D Warehouse' search engine thing.

I know you want geeky software, but..

A bathroom is usually a modest space, very easily simulated to scale with some grid paper and scissors to cut out the few shapes needed. Quicker, cheaper, and easier.

But not as geeky.

Yeah, but then you don't get to ray-trace the reflections of the shower curtain on the porcelain toilet bowl or chrome accents. I mean, you can do some mock-phong shading with a few nice pencil crayons, but it's not the same thing.

If you need to browse the space in 3D and for "FREE" I'd probably also recommend Sketch-Up - it's pretty generic and can be used for anything. I've seen it demonstrated in person by their company employees a half dozen times and I've always been extremely impressed. Looked pretty straight forward for basic use, plus there are a ton of tutorials available on the net, including some really nice video ones.

Truly geeky would be to write your own app over the next couple of years while using a bucket in the meantime.

You mean like this:





And before you ask, the 3D model came first...

qcad, kpovmodeller, povray... and a bit more than a day.
(OK, a *lot* more!)

err, no, I wouldn't recommend it to a friend

So.. how often *do* you bump your heads on that far corner cabinet..

I looked at a couple of bits of software, Google Sketchup included, but in the end, I did use graph paper and scissors.

So, that's the suite ordered this afternoon. Tiles tomorrow...

Lol - I have once
The bin lives under there so it's not an issue anymore.

It was tremendously useful having the model though - we changed quite a few things based on it; it wasn't really up to choosing colours but it was tremendously spooky when it was done. After spending so long fiddling with it, it felt like we were in a cartoon.

kpovmodeller is as close as I think linux comes to being what Roger wants; but there's no library and I don't think there's an easy way to import/export components.

Not sure what surface you are laying onto, but I thought the chances are high that it will be wood (if on the floor of course), I recently laid some pretty expensive quartz tiles in my bathroom onto a new build chipboard subfloor, I used Schlüter-DITRA to try and stop my new £90m2 tiles from cracking and its done a great job. Well worth the extra £££.

Cheers

Cris.

Marine ply is what we've used in our previous bathrooms.

I've just been happy with two-ply all this time in my bathroom...