This paper describes the inter-related use of three digital prototyping technologies by undergraduate students in the Department of Architecture and Building Science at the University of Strathclyde. These are: virtual reality computer graphics (CG), rapid manufacture (RM) of physical scale models from digital data, and acquisition of digital data relating to the shape of a physical object by some form of laser scanning (LS). The paper describes two experiments - one relating to housing, the other to a transport museum - to determine how seamlessly, accurately and usefully the (student) architect can move from one technology to another in the course of design.