It seems to me that regardless of possible work-arounds here what we want from Cakewalk is an option to select a marker to determine where the end of project is. It would be good if you could have the situation that when you inserted the "end of project" marker a warning message appeared that said - " Warning all data will be deleted beyond this point - do you wish to continue?" That way any Meter/key changes, envelope nodes, tempo changes, midi data, data in archived tracks, data in hidden tracks, data in hidden busses, audio data imported at the wrong time stamp etc. would be removed.
 
You would obviously also need an option to remove the "end of project" marker in case you wished to extend the project. With this as well you could use it inconjuction with the in "end of project" marker solely to remove the unwanted data on your problem projects that played beyond your end of song.

Really weird Kalle, I hope you can find out what causes this to happen.

pgdudley
I think maybe the question and the answer are not syncing.
Example - I have a 30 minute 4-track tape I want to lay down as 4 separate tracks in Soanr.  Don't get lost in the details here, its not important except for the 30 minutes of tape.  Here is what we want to do:  Hit the "Play" button on the analog 4-track input device and hit the "Record" button in Sonar.  Ok... we're recording.  Now - I want to go to bed!  I want my Sonar system to STOP recording in 30 minutes.  I can't be there to hit the STOP button in Sonar.  I don't want to continuously record while I sleep, only to wake up and say dammit I'm out of hard drive space because I only had 30 minutes of audio to record and Sonar just kept recording and recording and recording...
 

Get it?
 
I want to set it... and forget it....
 
(So, is that what you were looking for?  If not - sorry man.  But that's what I am looking for!  LOL)

Create a midi track for transport control. At 30 min into the project insert a note. Map that note to STOP when coming from your midi input. Loop back your midi output to your midi input with a midi cable.
It would be nice if SONAR could do it without the hardware fix, but this works. I have used it for stopping backing tracks at markers when performing live.

That's not actually a solution, though your condescension is impressive. 

Thank you!  my sentiments exactly.   It, the OP, is an old problem and I've never found a good solution except vigilance, constant vigilance.   Just today ran a 3 minute project to 40 minutes when I was distracted with other issues.

tlong@talk21.com
It seems to me that regardless of possible work-arounds here what we want from Cakewalk is an option to select a marker to determine where the end of project is. It would be good if you could have the situation that when you inserted the "end of project" marker a warning message appeared that said - " Warning all data will be deleted beyond this point - do you wish to continue?" That way any Meter/key changes, envelope nodes, tempo changes, midi data, data in archived tracks, data in hidden tracks, data in hidden busses, audio data imported at the wrong time stamp etc. would be removed.
 
You would obviously also need an option to remove the "end of project" marker in case you wished to extend the project. With this as well you could use it inconjuction with the in "end of project" marker solely to remove the unwanted data on your problem projects that played beyond your end of song.

Excellent idea, the exact fix I do believe everyone here is pining for. Rotsa ruck! I would love to see it actually happen. Have had the same problem since......well... since.

phil caldwell
Under "options" check to see that "stop at project end" is selected. ( i was going to attach an image but this won't let me).
 
 

Wow!!!
 
Thanks!!!
 
You have solved a mystery that has been bugging me for years. I tested your solution in Sonar X2 and X3, and it works!!!
 
Just to clarify it is in the "Options" drop-down menu in the track view.  I couldn't find it in Sonar 8.5, so maybe it just magically appeared with the Skylight update.
 
Edit: Just to update this post for Sonar 8.5, I did find "stop at project end" in the menus.  It is a little more buried without the Skylight GUI.  It can be found at: Options>Global Options>General "stop at project end".