Because cosmic dust grains vary significantly in both morphology and chemical composition, it is necessary to develop different light scattering tools to analyze their scattering properties and to reconcile these properties with observations. We present a set of recently developed tools which includes a database of optical constants of materials of astronomical interest, exact and approximate methods and numerical codes using various models of a non-spherical inhomogeneous scatterer, a database of optical properties of non-spherical particles, a new approach to find a solution of ill-posed inverse problems in optics, and an original polarized radiation-transfer code applicable to 3D media populated by aligned non-spherical scatterers.