For spaces of constant, linear, and quadratic splines of maximal smoothness on the Powell-Sabin 12-split of a triangle, the so-called S-bases were recently introduced. These are simplex spline bases with B-spline-like properties on the 12-split of a
single triangle, which are tied together across triangles in a Bezier-like manner. In this paper we give a formal definition of an S-basis in terms of certain basic properties. We proceed to investigate the existence of S-bases for the aforementioned spaces and additionally the cubic case, resulting in an exhaustive list. From their nature as simplex splines, we derive simple differentiation and recurrence formulas to other S-bases. We establish a Marsden identity that gives rise to various quasi-interpolants and domain points forming an intuitive control net, in terms of which conditions for $C^0$-, $C^1$-, and $C^2$-smoothness are derived.
This paper analyzes the approximation properties of spaces of piece-wise tensor product polynomials over box meshes with a focus on application to IsoGeometric Analysis (IGA). The errors are measured in Lebesgue norms. Estimates of different types ar
e considered: local and global, with full or reduced Sobolev seminorms. Attention is also paid to the dependence on the degree and exponential convergence is proved for the approximation of analytic functions.
