Somehow my help files have vaporized. It's been a long time since I've done this. To create negative object - I need to set the negative aspect to negative - the positive aspect to positive and group both right? Guidance toward a tutorial that is explanatory are greatly appreciated. For your consideration - I thank you.

Sounds like you got it spot on to me.

I did a test run with 2 test items in a separate file, and it worked like a charm. When I returned to my project - the negative item, once grouped with the positive item, disappears but does not leave the negative "hole" as it did in my test run. Now, there are more items in the scene itself, and none of them are grouped with the two items that I am attempting to modify. I also separated the two items (so that neither one was touching the other items) just to test this theory, and without results. Is it necessary to group all of the other items in the scene to gain the desired effect? Am I losing my mind?

Off the top of my head: If you're talking about parts of a mesh, you need to ungroup it, click on E and check solid when Booleaned, click OK, declare every part positive, bring the negative object, group it with the one you want to cut, and then group with all the other parts of the mesh.

Also, I just determined that I am mapping a texture onto the item that I need to intersect with a negative item - this seems to be the key to this problem. Is there any way of negotiating around this dilemma? My hair is growing more gray and falling out quickly!

For crying out loud - the "solid when Booleaned" was the key to the negative cut! Erlik - you nailed that one with precision. Thank you so kindly. Yours truly, a Bryce beginner.