Complex geometric shapes can be defined simply and efficiently by combining and operating various surface primitives. These primitives and their intersection curves are used in finite element mesh generation to form an easy and intuitive procedure for finite element modelling of curved surfaces. This paper proposes techniques of automatic mesh generation on surface primitives with arbitrarily shaped boundaries and control curves, which may be created by surface to surface intersection. A method of automatic mesh generation on plane, which was previously developed by the author, has been modified for application to the surface mesh generation. Owing to the mesh generation-wise differences between planes and surfaces, the surfaces should be transformed into conceptual plane so that the modified plane mesh generation method can be applied. Surface development, mapping and mesh reconstruction are the key techniques suggested in this paper. The selection of the technique to apply can be determined automatically on the basis of the developability, existence of singularity and other characteristics of the surfaces on which the mesh is to be generated. The suggested techniques were implemented into parts of mesh generation functions of the finite element software, MacTran. Their validity and practicality were manifested by the actual use of this software.