Chilly weather, hot chocolate, holiday celebrations... I'm proud to kick off our sweetest SketchUp modeling challenge ever: the first annual Google SketchUp Gingerbread House Design Competition. To make it a little easier to design the gingerbread house of your dreams, I modeled a blank house to get you started. Go ahead and download it from the 3D Warehouse, then follow the instructions in the file.


I also built a selection of decorations (candy canes, gumdrops, wafer roof tiles) that you can use to spiff up your model. Of course, you're welcome to do anything you like; it's your masterpiece. When you're finished, don't forget to label your gingerbread house with the tag "gingerbread2009" and upload it to the 3D Warehouse. The competition deadline is January 4th at midnight, Pacific Standard Time.

This undertaking is all about having fun with SketchUp, so the prizes will be glory based. (What did you expect: a gingerbread flat-screen TV?) We'll award the following prizes, and announce the winners here and on the Official Google Blog about a week after the competition closes on January 4th.

• 1st, 2nd and 3rd place – for the best overall gingerbread houses in the collection
• The 'Sprinkles' Prize – for the best additions to the base model (the crazier, the better)
• The 'Swirl' Prize – for the best use of Dynamic Components in the model
• The 'Sweet-tooth' Prize – for the most creative use of a single candy ingredient in a model

If you're looking for inspiration, take a gander at what folks did with Santa's sleigh last year. Have fun, and happy holidays.

Posted by Aidan Chopra, Product Evangelist