[AngleWyrm]

You can build several designs, and step through them all as soon as your ship's first design is complete. For instance, you can build a nearly empty hull with only enough componants to eliminate the warning lights (crew quarters, life support, bridge). Then as soon as that is done, which happens quickly, upgrade it to version two, then version three, etc right up to the finished version. You don't have to wait for the interim versions to be built either, you can retrofit all the way up before pressing turn. You'll get the final version, but with heavy damage. It will take NumberOfDamagedParts/5 or so to finish the job.