It is suggested to introduce structures scaffolding mechanics into the game for having capabilities to plan a base and estimate structures' placing in advance.
If you are familiar with a game Factorio, the similar mechanic there is called blueprinting.
P. S. There are some mods out there, which tries to do similar things, e.g. for flingomatics (see screenshot below). But the mods are just mods and they are not always do the things quite good. 
It would be nice to have such capabilities in-game and not just for some of structures.
