3D models of the engineering class usually have a large number of connected components, with small numbers of large triangles, often with arbitrary connectivity. To enable compact storage and fast transmission of large 3D mesh models, an efficient compression strategy specially designed for 3D mesh models is provide. A method for encoding a 3D mesh model comprises determining and clustering repeating components, normalizing the components, wherein scaling factors are clustered and orientation axes are clustered, encoding the connected components using references to the clusters, and entropy encoding the connected components.