Reply To: Is there better methods for selecting faces when select “Link” or “Paint” do not work well ?

I’ve done a lot of work on convoluted meshes like this. Usually I’m working on cleaning up game models or similar and they won’t be exported back out of Blender in such a way that keeping their geometry intact matters too much so my workflow reflects that.

Best case scenario the model might have some vertex groups already established and you can select portions of the mesh by selecting the vertex groups. Check the Data tab.

Sometimes models come in as a group of joined objects. If it seems to make sense I might select all in edit mode and separate by loose parts.

Sometimes models come in as a chaotic clump of loose geometry that makes zero sense (at least outside of a game engine) so I select all and Merge by Distance which usually helps.

If I see I need to start selecting parts of the mesh more exactly I will often convert a triangulated mesh to quads just to reduce the number of faces I’m going to have to deal with. This has the bonus effect of sometimes creating loops which are more quickly selected.

If anything can be selected via, say, loop selection and/or via the “by similar” options then I do that as much as possible.

Unfortunately, most of the time it comes just making selections by hand. Remember, selecting things you DON’T want selected and then inverting the selection (crtl-i) to get the stuff you do want can help speed things up in some cases.

IMPORTANTLY!!!! Once you get your selection made SAVE and NAME it as a vertex group in the Data tab! This way you can always quickly reselect those areas later! You can also assign/remove selections from existing groups so if you’ve spent a bunch of time tediously selecting stuff by hand but need a break you can assign that to a group and always come back later to add more.

Hope this helps!