Anyone,
 
Does anyone know how/where Cakewalk Sonar Platinum gets its  Pluggin Manager Categories from?
 
If you open Pluggin Manager - The Left Box is called "Plug-in Categories"   I have 11 of them. 
 
Does everyone get 11 Plug-in Categories"?   Is this just a built-in default value in Sonar?
 
Can I make my own Categories?   

Pretty sure this is already set up for you with just the core Sonar plugins visible. The list must vary according to the version you're running.
 
It doesn't seem to include any Pro Channel vst's, as far as I can see.

Bristol_Jonesey
Pretty sure this is already set up for you with just the core Sonar plugins visible. The list must vary according to the version you're running.
 
It doesn't seem to include any Pro Channel vst's, as far as I can see.

Great Point.  Pro-Channel vst's aren't listed in the Plug-In Manager.   Hmmmmm. I never thought about that.

I also noticed that all of my Blue Tube audio FX are listed as instruments so when I go looking for something, I have to remember these aren't where I expect them to be. the "default" category had to come from somewhere, right?

No, that definitely does not sound right.    All of my BT plugins are under the FX tab > Nomad Factory.

Yes, the BT plug-ins bundled with SONAR are NOT instruments. They should be in the "VST Audio Effects" category. They might be be moved by going into their properties and changing from "Configure as synth" to "Enable as plug-in" and "Configure as tempo-based effect" but it should not be necessary. It might get cleared up by running a VST reset.
 
To the OP, the categories are created by the software from a registry scan and cannot be maintained by the user.