text: Architects have a wide variety of tools at their disposable.  Old reliable is the scale.  There are two kinds of scales, architect and Engineers scale.  Project type depicts which scale you use.  There are also a wide variety of hand drawing tools like triangles like the 30/60/90 and the 45/45/90.  You can use them together to create a greater variety of angles.  T-squares and french curves are helpful, but if you want to run right into the computer age, there is nothing like using AUTOCAD.  The ease of use and manipulation, and the ability to transform 2-d into a 3-d walkthrough make this an option once you have passed concept and have a concrete design.  Hope this helps.\n\nMatt