We have added a new and significantly faster method for importing Catia V5 files in VRED 2023.1. The Lightweight option skips several unnecessary operations in ATF for translating CAD data to VRED.
Lightweight is the new default CAD import method. Find it in the Import File(s) dialog in the File Specific Options section and in the Catia V5 FileIO Preferences.
For legacy reasons, the old method is still available as a fallback if issues arise using the Lightweight method. There should be no differences in terms of tessellation quality, structure, material import, or naming conventions compare to the Legacy import method.