This is something I seem to remember being up for discussion between the developers, but currently this only works for models that share the same texture. Could that have been the issue? This could also explain why you'd need to select a face, as textures can be applied per-face in the UV editor.
I dare say there is no toggle to always switch it on. How should it support edge or vertex selection? Which faces should be selected, there are usually more than one connected to an edge or vertex. In edge mode you have the option to select similar edges by face angle, but that is for the whole mesh.
Go to File->User Preferences, Themes tab on top, 3D View on the left. Find Face and Face Selected colors 13 rows down from the top. Click the colors and drag alpha to zero. Save user settings and you should be good to go. Is this what you're looking for?
(At least for this simple example:) If you split your object in the 3D view then the UV-scaling with pivot set to individual origins does give the wanted borders/margin.. but to select every wanted "face-island" and split it or split everything by Mesh -> Split -> Face by Selection and then merging the "face-islands" may…
I'm trying to use Blenders lasso select (ctrl+lmb) was wondering if it's possible select all encompassed faces instead of just the ones the user can see? Right now I have to switch to wireframe mode every time I want to lasso select, otherwise backfaces and such are completely ignored. Also would be nice if there was a way…
G-S-R are ok. It is axes keys what I can't get used to. Looks like a lot of unnessesary key presses to me. I have other question. When I select let's say face and switch transform orientation to normal and then hit G and Y/X/Z it translates selected face along world space axes, not along face normal. Looks like I can only…
@Justo Yes, is in edit > preferences > input > 3d cursor, and you will then have to change the transform orientation to 3d cursor when you want to scale things toward each other. But like i said, you will need a face to snap it so the 3d cursor will align its normal with the face.
I've had some success with Projected Face Interpolated and Mix, but I see that after toggling the modifier on and off a couple of times to refresh it you can also get a good result with Nearest Corner of Nearest Face for smoothing out bevels if your source mesh has enough geometry.
TBH I don't think the Wireframe mode behavior is fully intentional... Not just the "select the dot" thing, but even the detection algorithm for face proximity is completely broken, as it seems obvious that it should favor front-facing faces, but it doesn't. Of course as mentioned above the dot is handy in order to select…