Abstract Grid preserving maps of triangulated surfaces were introduced for quad meshing because the 2D unit grid in such maps corresponds to a sub‐division of the surface into quad‐shaped charts. These maps can be obtained by solving a mixed integer optimization problem: Real variables define the geometry of the charts and integer variables define the combinatorial structure of the decomposition. To make this optimization problem tractable, a common strategy is to ignore integer constraints at first, then to enforce them in a so‐called quantization step. Actual quantization algorithms exploit the geometric interpretation of integer variables to solve an equivalent problem: They consider that the final quad mesh is a sub‐division of a T‐mesh embedded in the surface, and optimize the number of sub‐divisions for each edge of this T‐mesh. We propose to operate on a decimated version of the original surface instead of the T‐mesh. It is easier to implement and to adapt to constraints such as free boundaries, complex feature curves network etc .