I was thinking of a way that would make building whole settlements easier and this is what I've come up with.

You would start by building a virtual reality pod like the ones from Memory Den in a settlement of your choosing, and attach a special terminal to it. You would then hope in and it would come up with a prompt screen asking to "start a new build", "Load a Build" or "Load Current settlement" after that you would then Pick which settlement location to load. Loading a current settlement would load a virtual settlement from a list of your settlements with whatever is currently built there minus the settlers and companions (so you can build in peace). Seeing as your in a virtual world, you would be able to fly and move freely as to easily get into position that otherwise would require you to use additional materials to get to high or other awkward positions, you would be limited as to how far you could move just outside the build area though. Obviously in this mode you would have no need for materials for crafting you would simply pick the desired item and place them, the material cost would be calculated at the end of your build.

Two Items that must be placed in your virtual settlement would be the Pod and Terminal, so when your done building your settlement or chose to take a brake from your build you would then get back in your pod then Title and save your settlement to continue later on, or you could select the option to apply your virtually built settlement onto the current settlement that's there. If you chose to apply to current settlement It will then come up with a supply list of needed material to build it, If you have all the material then you can continue, In doing so it would then apply these changes to you settlement, and after a load screen you would then be in your new settlement that you just built. If you built something for another settlement, the next time you travel there everything you build would be there, but you must have a supply line to that settlement or have the listed materials in the workbench there, because if the material aren't available to build it it will not load your virtual build.

In the event you don't have all the calculated materials for that build or any finished build, it will then prompt you letting you know you do not have the materials to build, but still show the list of needed materials and then you could select another option to make a Holotape that you could then load up on your pip-boy and keep track of the material list for that saved settlement. when you finally have all the needed materials you could jump back in your Pod load and apply you settlement, once it's built that saved Holotape would then be removed as to not clutter your inventory.

I just thought this would be a really neat way of making settlement and at the same time not having to worry about all the minor annoyances that can happen while you build, also giving you the ability to build freely and seeing what work and what doesn't at no extra material cost to you. You don't like what you just spent the last 5 hours making...DELETE! And the only thing it cost you was time, but what do you care I was a crap build anyways. I have tore down and rebuild Sanctuary 3 times now on XBOX and each time it just gets bigger. It would just be a fun addition but mostly to the building aspect of settlements.

Whats your thoughts on this idea.