@Mike Nicholas It's always been there (in 3ds max), but I frequently get bored with a model and usually call it a day with, and often without, a quick render. I've a shitload of Plasticity models that are as yet unfinished and will gradually work my way through them. I want to tackle my pod from 2001 A Space Odyssey as I ran into a couple of issues along the way and gave up on it to have a rest for a 'day or two' that's turned into the best part of a year. I think we can get more out of playing around and experimenting without trying to copy stuff that's already made, which is probably why Sci Fi objects are so appealing.

@Mike Nicholas I dug out the EVA Pod model I put down 10 months ago and quickly realized what the job ahead entailed. There are a ton of details on its surface yet to be done, which isn't a problem, but where the real issue lies is the unification of the base shape and the sphere, which is truly complex and probably the main reason I put this model aside for the time being. The front isn't a problem as there is a lot of information/photographs on the Internet, but not so much detail for the rear. Another issue is the number of decals on the pods front, back and sides. Some such as the 'exploding bolts' decal I can create from scratch, but others are too small to read and I don't want to leave them off as that would just annoy me. So the long and short of it is that this looks like it's going to be a drawn out procedure and could take quite some time to resolve unless somebody can come up with what these small decals say. I have a book called, "2001: The Lost Science" that contains detailed drawings of the various spacecraft used during the movie, but there is nothing of any real use on the EVA pod. So, I guess it's going to be a case of just chipping away at it.

@Brian Davidson No feedback regarding the cause, just a short sentence that basically said, "load factory settings." Another user with the same issue said he'd copied his userpref.blend file from 4.2 to 4.3 and that fixed his problem. It was totally weird to have a functioning keyboard and right mouse click while in Edit mode and then to have them frozen when I switched to Object mode.

@Brian Davidson The joys of modeling. LOL

@Allen Mueller LOL I think it might be a flat bur grinder. You can find it online if you want to check it out. I think it's a great design.

@Rafael Carette That doesn't work. When you plug a texture into a Principled BSDF and try connecting it to the Factor of a Mix Shader it generated a red connection line error. You can, however, as we know, plug it into one of the mix shaders other two connections.

@Rafael Carette You missed out connecting the alpha from the image into the Factor of the Mix Shader. It works when you do that so yes it does work.

I've created a blown up model of what I think is going on with your surfaces, but I can't really determine what the cross section actually looks like. Is the image I've attached the same kind of section you have? I've increased the distances to try and understand what's going on with your model. It could be that you have a split curve with one or more extra points and the patch routine can't close the edge correctly and is leaving a gap. So the first thing to do is delete the surface and pick the edge where the problem is. If the edge is split then you may see a large or short edge is selected.

@Daniel Martinez We've all been there at one time or another. You just have to keep banging away at it.