Build outside of VAB

[quasarrgames]

I wanna make a ship. A BIG ship. Like, 200m long. The VAB and SPH aren't big enough. I've seen other people offset their ships so that they are outside of the VAB and SPH somehow. How do you do it?

[xtoro]

This mod http://forum.kerbalspaceprogram.com/threads/65747-1-0-Hangar-Extender-v3-3

[Snark]

Another option, if you'd like to make a ginormous ship, but want to have a more nuts-and-bolts experience putting it together: Use KAS. It provides "deployable struts" that your kerbals can attach while in flight.

Using KAS, the "make a ginormous ship" process would look like this:

Design your megaship in independently-launchable sections. Each section has a large-size docking port fore and aft. Around each docking port, put a few (say, four) symmetric KAS strut sockets. Launch each section, dock it to your under-construction ship, send out a kerbal on EVA to hook up the struts (needed because otherwise a docking-port-only connection is too floppy).

I realize this may not be what you had in mind, just wanted to throw it out there, because it's tons of fun-- not just the added design challenge of how to build/launch a big ship in sections that all work together, but also just the operational aspect of docking, sending out kerbals to do EVA construction work, that sort of thing. Not sure if that's your cup of tea-- personally, I love it, it gives me a lot of that visceral "you're running a space program" thrill.

(Reason I'm building big ships: I'm running TAC-LS to force life support, plus UKS to make life support complicated, plus Outer Planets to make missions take many years. So if I want to go exploring on a 20-year mission, I need a ship big and complex enough to be able to grow its own food and recycle its air/water, which ends up being pretty massive. Constructing the expedition ship was so much fun...)

[Zephram Kerman]

You can simply shift-click on one end of the thing, and drag it all the way to the wall of the VAB. That way, most of it is sticking outside. Then continue building the other end. Nice for rockets and towers, not so good for complex things.