A new point cloud simplification method with feature and integrity preservation by partition strategy

•Simplify the point cloud by using partitioning strategy.•Introduce a region growing segmentation method to divide the point cloud into feature regions and non-feature regions.•Use curvature and point spacing to measure the features of points.•Use normal difference, information entropy, and voxel down-sampling to get edge points, feature points, and non-feature points of the point cloud, respectively.