Out of game designing

Not sure if this is the right place to post this but it seemed relevant. Is there a way I can use the designer without the cheat or without starting a game to use it?

I want to create my own starting ships and my own series of ships for my custom faction; however the only practical way I have found to do this is not very practical.  That is in game.  I tried the cheat given in the Steam community but it unlocks every tech making the hulls max capacity and there are problems with doing it in game as well.  I know I could just unlock specific techs using the cheat, but would take some serious time and have to be done each and every time I went to use it.