Although you can use subdivision surfaces up to the completion of your project, you may need to convert them to polygons after you have finished modeling. For example, if you’re creating characters for a game, the game engine often requires the models to be polygons.
Maya offers two ways to convert subdivision surfaces to polygons:
To convert to a close approximation of your subdivision surface
If the subdivision surface you tessellate has creases, the polygon edges that result at the creases are not automatically made hard.
You can create a polygon mesh that can be converted to another subdivision surface with the same shape as the original.
Convert to a rough approximation of the subdivision surface by matching vertices