diff --git a/Applications/Utils/MeshEdit/ExtractSurface.cpp b/Applications/Utils/MeshEdit/ExtractSurface.cpp
index 604868608bfc586ebcd6990162723ab2e462508c..8600a0f0cf04a5d79b219ae3ea73de165405ce41 100644
--- a/Applications/Utils/MeshEdit/ExtractSurface.cpp
+++ b/Applications/Utils/MeshEdit/ExtractSurface.cpp
@@ -86,9 +86,10 @@ int main (int argc, char* argv[])
         90, "floating point value");
     cmd.add(angle_arg);
 
-    TCLAP::ValueArg<bool> use_ascii_arg(
-        "", "ascii_output", "use ascii format for data in the vtu output ", false,
-        false, "boolean value");
+    TCLAP::SwitchArg use_ascii_arg("", "ascii-output",
+                                   "If the switch is set use ascii instead of "
+                                   "binary format for data in the vtu output.",
+                                   false);
     cmd.add(use_ascii_arg);
 
     cmd.parse(argc, argv);