CATIA Translator

A cost effective conversion tool to pull data from a CATIA?  I have fielded the question from customers on the support line time and time again.  “My customer has sent me parts in the form of a CATIA file, how can I open the file and use the data?”  Up to this point the answer has always been a translator from a third party vendor.  Most of these translations have been done on a file by file basis, or a more costly file translator has been purchased. 

While talking to some other support techs a few days ago it was brought up that the new Adobe 3D may have a solution to the problem.  I immediately jumped to their website to do a little research.  It seems that Adobe has done just that.  Adobe 3D claims to have the ability to open and convert 3D data from both CATIA V4 and CATIA V5.  They offer a free trial of the product; however I do not have any CATIA files to try out the translation.  I would love to hear from anyone who has tried the conversion abilities of Adobe 3D and if so how did it work?

Design better,

Keith Schaefer