Face select mode is used to select faces in a mesh. A [i]face[/i] consists of a list of three or more vertices (up to a maximum of 255), and at each associated vertex, a list of attributes defined by the document's [link=vertex_format]Vertex Format[/link]. A face does not store the position of any vertex; it only stores the association. As such, the same vertex can be associated with multiple faces, but each face can store a unique set of attributes at the site of that vertex. In addition to the list of vertices and their attributes, each face also stores a partition identifier, and a boolean value indicating whether or not the face is hidden.

When in Face select mode, faces are hit detected directly at the mouse cursor position as they appear onscreen. If the [link=cull_backfaces]Cull Backfaces[/link] option is active, the back side of faces will not be hit detected, even in [link=wireframe]wireframe[/link] mode. Hit detection can be adjusted with the [!keybind]Page Up, [!keybind]Page Down, [!keybind]Home, and [!keybind]End keys, allowing faces farther away from the camera to be moused over even if an obscuring face is in front of it.

Clicking the [!keybind]left mouse button when a face is moused over will deselect all other faces and select that face. Holding the [!keybind]Shift key will toggle the selected status of the moused over face. When a face is selected/deselected in Face select mode, all face corners belonging to that face will also be selected/deselected. Face corners associated with adjacently connected faces will either be affected or unaffected depending on whether [link=inclusive_mode]Inclusive Mode[/link] is active.

Holding the [!keybind]Alt key while in Face select mode allows face loops to be selected. A [i]face loop[/i] is a continuous chain of quadrilateral faces that are joined by 4-way intersections. A face loop terminates when it reaches its starting position, or an intersection that is not 4-way. When bordering a hole in the mesh, 2-way intersections are sufficient to continue a face loop. The entire chain of faces to be selected will be highlighted on mouseover if [link=show_mouseover]Show Mouseover[/link] is on. The orientation of the face loop to be selected is determined by placing the mouse over an edge which straddles two faces within the loop.

If the [!keybind]Ctrl and [!keybind]Alt keys are held, a subsection of a face loop can be selected, extending from the most recently selected face. By default, if the subsection is within a face loop that would complete a circuit back to its starting point, the shorter of the two paths around the loop will be preferred. To toggle between the short path and the long path, while still holding [!keybind]Ctrl and [!keybind]Alt and keeping the mouse over the applicable edge of the face to be selected, either [!keybind]scroll with the mouse wheel, or press the [!keybind]semicolon key.

Pressing the [!keybind]Tab key in Face select mode will cycle through all faces in the document in numerical order. Holding the [!keybind]Shift key will cycle in reverse.