I recently upgraded to Platinum.  (Nice)  I was just learning about automation on X3 and thought I was getting the jist of it.  Now I'm stymied again...
 
So I have a simple project with 3 tracks - Kontact 5 16 out, a midi track, and an audio track.  The midi track's input is channel 1 of my midi keyboard, the output is Kontact channel 1.  The audio track's input is Kontact st.1 stereo, and the output is the Master buss.
 
Within Kontakt I have midi learned CC-12 to control the filter cutoff and resonance for the instrument on channel 1.  Using my midi controller I can play notes and use the slider assigned to CC-12 to tweak Kontakt.  So far so good...
 
Now I want to draw automation of CC-12 in Sonar.  Hum...  In track view I change the filter to automation->Midi... on the midi track.  The dialog is raised.  Type = control, Channel = 1, but Value has no provision for selecting CC-12.  It goes from 11 to 64.  I see no way to add other controllers.
 
So I try turning on Write automation on the midi track.  I playback my track and sweep the filter using the slider on my keyboard.  Sounds good, but when I play the track back (after turning write automation off) I hear no effect.  Nor can I use the track edit filter to select CC-12 (still).  It's like nothing was recorded.
 
So I go looking for non-midi host automation for the Kontakt instance.  Can I draw automation for the filter cutoff and resonance directly.  (I'm sure I can...)  But I can't seem to find any track filter option to drill down into Kontakts published controllers.
 
Hence this post.  Apparently I still don't understand automation very well.
 
Help  (And I did review the Sonar documentation online...f
 
Thanks
 

By default SONAR is only going to display controllers that the synth 'advertises' it responds to. Since you created the mapping for CC12, it isn't listed, but you can create an envelope for any controller just by typing in the controller number.

Yes, that worked!  Thanks.
 
So I used write automation on the Kontakt plugin UI and tweaked another knob.  The movements were recorded on the VSTs track.  I didn't see any option to specify where to write the automation.  Does it have to go the VSTs track?
 
It seems that if I want to keep all my midi notes and automation in one place, I need to use the CC mapping approach(?).
 
Whats the advantage of using write automation on VST controls versus mapped midi CCs?
 
Thanks!
 

Also, I can write automation a Kontakt control only if I move the control with my mouse.  If I assign a midi controller to the knob and attempt a write automation of the knobs' movements, nothing gets recorded.  I don't understand why write automation cares how I move the knob.  Sp if I want to use a midi controller to tweak a VST control, it seems that I'm limited to drawing in the midi controller data.
 
Or can I tell Sonar to only record a specific CC and then do a Sound on Sound recording of the midi track to add the CC information?  How would that be done?
 
Sorry for all my questions...
 
Thanks
 

I don't use synth automation much, so I'm not really the one to answer these questions, but...
 
In the synth rack (i.e. Synth tab of the Browser) there's is a drop-down with a track name in it for the selected synth. Hover over that, and you'll see "Synth Automation Track =" <track name>. You can determine which track hosts the synth automation by that dropdown.
 
And I could be very wrong about this, but I think that when you use MIDI  to control a widget in a soft synth's GUI the resulting movement of widget doesn't generate any data to be written; both the widget and the underlying synth parameter are responding directly to the MIDI as opposed to the MIDI controlling the widget, and the widget controlling the synth parameter. So you can only record the MIDI data in that case.

So if I use the Browser (docked or floating) and then use the "assignable control" feature to add a proxy for the Kontakt widget, then I can Remote Control... the proxy control and learn a midi controller to move it.  Then I can Automation Write enable the proxy control (within the Browsers Synth Rack).  With all that done, I can write automation info to the track of my choice, using the midi controller to move the proxy widget.
 
So I learned a lot today.  Hope I can remember it tomorrow!  lol