As a graphic designer, I've created and produced a lot of packaging, which I normally render for my portfolio with Photoshop. The only problem with this method is that it's time-consuming and can be a bit difficult getting all of the renderings consistent with angle and lighting.

This application seems to work pretty well, although it was a bit irritating to have to import the same dieline in three times, once for each visible surface; plus the open file dialog window didn't remember the last location, making me have to navigate back to my portfolio folder each time.

I also couldn't find any way to set defaults, so that I could save a few standard different angle/lighting/shadow settings for different uses.

Although it seems to be a good application, I can't see spending $80 for it as I would only need to use it occasionally.

Also, I'm not sure what "shareware" means anymore, since one has to purchase the application to get it out of demo mode. Wouldn't "demoware" or "commercial" be a better category?

What can I say? It just keeps on getting better! Good on you, devs! :)

Absolutely awesome, the best app I have ever used for this type of thing, bar none!

Brilliant support as well!

I can't praise this app enough.

Box shot 3D is a wonderful program If you need to produce beautiful realistic 3D virtual simple product shots in a quick and simple way (ie without having to learn or set up your standard complex 3D software). The program is easy and fun to use even for non-designers.
There are many customizable template objects you can wrap into your designs and you can also import external 3D Studio objects (I have not used this feature yet, though).
Images can be rendered up to 4000x4000 px which makes them usable even for producing print ads or posters.
The program worked works without any quirks on my MacPro, using all 8 cores when rendering raytraced images.
If you are interested in this kind of stuff I encourage you to give the demo a spin. Don't try the pirated versions because they will produce all kind of quirks and errors and will give you a completely wrong impression of the app. Try the demo instead and then go and support quality Mac software developers.

The lack of suggestions for similar products (at the time of writing) is a fair indication of this app's uniqueness on the Mac platform.

In my business, this app is a heaven-sent - we generate at least 3 to 5 images with it every day and I'd hate to think how much time that would take in Photoshop.

Sure, there a few quirks I'd like to see ironed out - like the size change function which doesn't do much for me when we have a wireobound book to do and which stretches the wireo unnaturally instead of creating additional coils - but overall, this is a pretty good product with a *very* responsive developer.