Product catalog is an important tool to communicate the product’s features with customers. In this research we address issues related to the development of 3D interactive product catalog. We first classify the contents of a product catalog into three major categories: appearance presentation, function and structure presentation, and component configuration presentation. Then we discuss how 3D interactive visualization offered by virtual reality technology could help enhance the content presentation of a product catalog. Based on the discussion, we have developed a system architecture for 3D interactive product catalog. The architecture consists of two major components: product catalog module and interaction-recording module. The product catalog module contains product structure tree, 3D display, and interaction selection interface. The product structure tree is a tree structure that organizes the components of a large, complicated product into a hierarchical structure. It also serves as an efficient tool for users to select the components to be displayed in the 3D display area and the focused component for which interactions are performed. The interaction-recording module records the 3D interaction using text commands so they the size of the saved file is small and the user could chose interesting part to replay. A 3D interactive catalog of a mechanical device is implemented using the proposed architecture to demonstrate its feasibility. Keywords: virtual reality, 3D interactive visualization, product catalog