Methods and systems for selectively smoothing an input surface mesh based on identified staircase artifacts are disclosed. Staircase artifacts may be generated along any one of a surface mesh's coordinate vectors. Vertices in the surface mesh associated with the staircase artifact are identified by comparing normalized angles between normal vectors of a plurality of faces adjacent to a vertex and a reference vector. Multiple reference vectors are used to identify additional artifact vertices. Weighted values may be generated for each vertex of the surface mesh based on the vertex's proximity to an identified artifact vertex. Vertices of a surface mesh may be subjected to a modified smoothing algorithm using the weighted values. The modified smoothing algorithm removes staircase artifacts while better preserving model volume and small model features.