Interior or Exterior First?

[AtomicCnidarian]

Concerning large ships, is it better to build the interior first or the exterior? When observing the many brilliant designs on the workshop, I often wonder which is designed first.

[DrEarlInsanity]

Both....i tend to alter both 'till they are of equal quality and usefulness.

Interior only design makes the hull awkward. Same goes for exterior only.

Tis best to make the hull work with interior than to force it to

[Oneill_SFA]

keep a basic layout in mind and just build unless you're trying to replicate a specific ship. If not, then just go with it and see what comes out.

[Blast (AKA LostAmI)]

I usually mold the hull around the interior, but good bit of thought to the exterior profile is a good idea. You want it to be a meld of form an function, the exterior hull should be as much a part of it's effectivness and efficiency as the interior systems.

Last thing you want to do is have to redesign half way through. I should know, im retrofitting my old gunship

[Glew]

I start with a profile, an idea of the visual I want the ship to have. This will give you some idea of where you CAN put certain things/rooms. After I've settled on the visual, I build a rough draft of the exterior and see how things fit. After this I will usually create a second draft, expanding and reducing in areas when I learned that I could from the first draft. After re-drafting as many times as I see fit, I start on the interior. This has worked for me but I'm sure there are other, better, or more suitable approaches to take. I just wanted to contribute to a budding space engineer! Kudos for playing this game :) It's a complex sandox that scares people away with its learning curve, but if I can help people gain confidence in their builds I want to do just that!

[Mr B.]

Best thing you can do is try a few different methods yourself. Pros and cons to all, but you'll find a preferred one.

[Flashblaster]

power, assembling, vents and container...i would say the interior is at first important, too

without a replicator (assembler) isn´t a crew happy on board :D

[Pembroke]

I've found the "interior first" approach works best for me. It guarantees that you'll get enough space for the functionality you want and results in a more logical and streamlined conveyor and access network.

Usually I start by putting down the "floor plan" i.e. just the floors of rooms and corridors but no walls yet. To get visually more interesting exteriors and interiors, I include height-offsets when connecting the different rooms using stairs/vert.windows. This also helps creating a 3D structure that's not just decks on top of each other.

When I have the floor plan ready I then put down the devices and the conveyor network. Because there are no walls yet, linking everything together in a sensible way is quite easy. Once I have the interior done I start armoring and building the hull around it. Since the floor plan was sprawling in 3D I neatly avoid the brick-syndrome without even having to think about it.

Very often the end result is also quite surprising in that I had no idea at the start it would end up looking the way it did end up looking, but in a good way.

If OTOH you want to copy a specific hull e.g. some sci-fi series ship then, of course, "exterior first" is the only sensible approach.