Difference between Editable Poly & Editable Mesh
"Historically, 3D Studio DOS and then MAX were based around Tri Meshes from the beginning. N-polygons (where N is 3 or more) usually have to be broken down to triangles at a certain stage of the calculation in order to be able to calculate the normal and the shading of the surface. The Editable Poly is not just another way of looking at things; it is based on a completely different internal data structure. Originally, it was developed by the makers of the Nendo and Mirai software (whatever their name is today). The popular name of the technology is "Winged Edges". The implementation of this new data structure started during Max 3 development (but there was no UI exposure in 3), then the basic UI came in Max 4 and was extended by Laszlo Sebo's Mesh tools, and matured in Max 5. N-polygons (where N is 3 or more) usually have to be broken down to triangles at a certain stage of the calculation in order to be able to calculate the normal and the shading of the s...