I am still learning all the common practices for Maya modeling. I typically take the box modeling approach but I'd like to know:

1) What is the difference between Mesh>Smooth and Proxy>Subdiv Proxy?

2) I'm less familiar with Subdiv Proxy and I was also wondering what workflow this option benifits?

Coming from a Modo background I typically just "Subdivide" my geometry at certain points to add detail for modeling and Maya is clearly a more robust package, hence my sensory overload when learning the software.

Thanks in advance to the SimplyMaya community for being so supportive and respectful of my ultra newbness.

-Eric