Bone select mode is used to select bones in an armature. A [i]bone[/i] is a pair of positions in space defining a jointed articulation, with which vertices can be associated to deform the mesh by moving the joint. Bones are hierarchical, allowing parent transformations to affect children. A bone can either be connected to its parent, which locks its starting point to its parent's ending point; or unconnected, which allows its starting point to be moved freely.

When in Bone select mode, bones are hit detected in a capsule-shaped radius around the line formed by their endpoints, prioritized by their proximity to the cursor. Bone hit detection is not affected by mesh geometry. [link=selection_peeling]Selection peeling[/link] can be used to assist with selecting a specific bone when bones are visually overlapping.

Clicking the [!keybind]left mouse button when a bone is moused over will deselect all other bones and select that bone. Holding the [!keybind]Shift key will toggle the selected status of the moused over bone. When a bone is selected, all bone endpoints belonging to that bone will also be selected. When a bone is deselected, its endpoints may remain selected if a connected parent or child is also selected.

Pressing the [!keybind]Tab key in Bone select mode will cycle through all bones in the armature in numerical order. Holding the [!keybind]Shift key will cycle in reverse.