So, I'm trying to create a Star Trek saucer and I'm having trouble doing a Boolean Difference operations on the saucer itself. I've been slowly Boolean Differencing the solid radials that represent the panel lines. You can see three or four in the file, three on the ventral side and one of the dorsal. These last four are the problem. When I try to Difference them, either the operation simply does not work, or the saucer itself disappears too, or only part of the radial is removed, leaving one surface behind that has apparently been unioned with the saucer. In that last instance, deleting that remaining surface results in the solid saucer becoming un-solid. I'm at a loss. How can I get these radials removed? Is there a Boolean Difference trick that I'm missing?

The radials were originally full 360 degree solids but then these problems came up. On a whim, I cut them in half and that allowed me to do a few more Boolean Differences, before the same issues cropped up.

Many thanks,

Robert