so I downloaded beepster's (or wookie's) control surface presets.  When I choose Mackie control and bring up the plugin in sonar utilities the presets are empty!  Do I need to transfer something somewhere?

Not sure which file you have, but you can download and run this installer:
 
https://www.cakewalk.com/Support/Knowledge-Base/2007013438/Control-Surface-Installers
 
EDIT - Sorry, just realised I misread the question and you already have the Control surface installed.
 

While MackieControl can have "presets", these are not distributed.
 
Tick "Selects highlights track" in the "Options" section, may be also "Meters" "Signal LEDs + Meters". The rest is up to personal taste.
 
In Sonar there are several specialized Control Surface plug-ins which are hardcoded to work with particular device (MackieControl, APro, etc.). Such plug-ins work reasonably with default settings, without any preset.
There are also general plug-ins (ACT MIDI, Generic Surface) for which binding with particular device is a part of preset.