A revised version of the shell-correction method, based on a new way of evaluating the smooth part of the total single-particle energy, is proposed. The folding of the sum of nucleon energies is performed in the particle-number space, not in the energies of individual nucleons, as was done in the old Strutinsky method.

PACS numbers: 21.10.Dr, 21.10.Ma, 21.60.Cs, 21.60.Jz