Design Check List

Choose a ship type you wish to design
Open the Engine Designer and select the ship type you have chosen and record the default Power given for that ship type
Close the Engine Designer
During the following steps keep this Power in mind as all of the components on the ship cannot use more than this amount of Power.
Design a radar for the ship type you have selected
Record the Power and Hull required for the radar
Design a weapon for the ship type you have selected
Record the Power and Hull required for the weapon
Repeat step 7 and 8 until you have all the weapons you desire for your ship
Optional: Design a shield for the ship type you have selected

Note: Shields take lots of Power, the shield is not always possible to fit on your design.

Design Armor with 10 hit points per plate and 150 total resistances. Any resistances you wish are ok.
Add up the Hull of all your components (ensure you add the weapon hull cost multiple times if you intend to add more than one to the hull)
Find a hull of the right class with greater hull than the number you got in step 12 Remember the maximum hull allowance for that hull.
Sum Power requirements of all components (ensure you add the weapon hull cost multiple times if you intend to add more than one to the hull)
Open the Engine Designer
Select the class of ship you wish to make in the type dropdown
Enter the number from step 13 as the Thrust
Enter the number from step 14 as the Power generated
The rest of the engine options are your choice, whatever you can get to work.
Complete the design of the engine
Make a hull with enough Hull allocated for each component you wish to add
Make a Prototype using all the components you designed