I am curious to know if it is better to boolean union two polygons together or if is better to use the combine polygon tool? I am new to this arena and I have a sense that the boolean union was the old way of doing things and the combine polygon tool is new. Am I wrong?

Also I notice that all your image planes are constructed using the nurbs plane primitive and then attaching the jpeg. I have Maya 7 and I think I can bypass that step by simply creating an image plane. Is it better to first construct a nurbs primitive plane or, again, is this the old way of setting up the image plane?

Curious new guy to Maya...