Raney -
I'm not sure I know enough about your situation, but . . .
If all you have is the file, I think you're SOL. If you have an XFD file that describes it, then you can extract the information from the XFD file (AcuODBC uses XFDs to that work). In any event, I don't believe you'll be able to read the file in the normal sense of the word without using AcuCOBOL or AcuODBC since Vision is a proprietary file system.
If all you need is key field information, VUTIL should provide that.
Good luck.
Glenn