1. A method of coding a view in a 2-dimensional CAD drawing, the method comprising: a) filtering the drawing to temporarily remove extraneous material therefrom; b) identifying a view in the drawing for coding; c) identifying a feature of the view, wherein the feature comprises a graphic entity or a group of graphic entities; d) extracting properties of the feature from the CAD drawing, wherein the properties include vector properties associated with the graphic entity or group of graphic entities; e) generating code bits representative of the extracted properties; f) adding the code bits to a view code for the view; and g) storing the view code.