How to pinch two surfaces together?

pati_aceves

I am trying to model two clear plastic sheets, about 2 inches apart at their edges, that have been melted together with heat along a few lines, so that they connect at those points, and along those lines the effective distance of the two plastic sheets is zero.  

Head on, it looks something like this:

_________
|       |
|  | |  |
|  | |  |
|       |
---------

I can model the sheets as either surfaces or super-thin solids, but then how do I pinch them together?  

If I should be creating the sheets in some other way entirely, also let me know.  

Thanks in Advance.

daniel_splawski

I don't fully understand the question.  If you had a example document to share it would help.  

Also, what exactly are you trying to capture as an output here?  If you're generating drawings for manufacturing, perhaps you could model the sheets as a single thin solid and use dotted/construction lines to show the desired melt zones.  I can't find a good way to accomplish this in a drawing, but it's the starting point that I'd use.

philip_thomas

If I have understood correctly, then i have to tell you, this is a very challenging problem. 
Outside of specialty applications (eg Fibersim $100,000), there is no easy way to do this. This problem is similar to 'what is the inflated shape?'.
If you are just looking for an approximation, it may be possible to create a representative shape using lofts - but understand that in the real world, a material with minimal stretch will wrinkle. You may also find some success with the powersurf application available for free in the AppStore (subD modeler). 
I hope this helps - Philip.