Abstract: A feature-preserving inpainting algorithm using extended total variation is presented to repair incomplete 3 D mesh models. Firstly, hole boundaries are detected based on the adjacent triangles and a dynamic programming method is used to build connectivities of the missing area. Secondly, a variational optimization model based on extended total variation is adapted to 3 D mesh models inpainting. Finally, an augmented Lagrangian method is employed to solve the introduced variational model to get the optimal vertex positions. The 3 D mesh models with holes are used as experimental data and comparison experiments are carried out on two volume-based algorithms and one surface-based algorithm. Experimental results demonstrate that our algorithm could recover holes well and reconstruct the whole models while preserving the initial features of the models.