1. A method of generating a drawing file shared by a source application and a target application, comprising: storing a copy of a computer aided design (CAD) drawing in a composite drawing file, wherein the CAD drawing is stored according to a drawing format used by the source application; generating a visual representation of the CAD drawing, wherein the visual representation is formatted according to a drawing format used by the target application; and storing the visual representation in the composite drawing file, wherein a display of the visual representation generated by the target application reflects a display of the CAD drawing generated by the source application.