Given a number of available layers of source data and a transmission bit budget, we propose an algorithm that determines how many layers should be sent and how many protection bits should be allocated to each transmitted layer such that the expected distortion at the receiver is minimum. The algorithm is used for robust transmission of progressively compressed 3D models over a packet erasure channel. In contrast to the previous approach, which uses exhaustive search, the time complexity of our algorithm is linear in the transmission bit budget.