How do I quantise a 2/4 bar which has 8 notes which are...dotted quaver/ semi quaver ...repeated 3 times ?

I've tried every combination but am getting no where . It's the start times I'm concerned about mostly .
I seem to remember 10 years ago quantisation was straight forward but now I guess somethings changed and I may be missing something. The only way I can tighten up the sequence is via staff track but it's painfully slow.

So you are trying to get a dotted eighth note followed by a sixteenth note repeated (sounds like four repetitions= eight notes) for a total of four beats in a two beat measure? When was that ever easy?

Sorry I cannot post a graphic...but yes...2/4 time....8 notes in each bar ...dotted eight and sixteenth recurring ...
Using the 32nd in quantise is about the closest I can get to tightening up the start times but it moves some notes well away from the true starting times. But the actual piece (by Mozart) has much of the above notation timings.

So if I'm understanding correctly, its a tuplet of 12 in the time of 8. 16th triplets should do the trick, and not be such a small duration that things move the wrong way.

Thanks for the suggestion...I tried it and it's the best yet. I didn't bother trying the triplets quants. But I noticed that unless I input the midi notes more or less exact it can still throw the timing way out.
I guess dotted quavers combined with semi quavers are too much for Sonar to quantise correctly.

You might try the free Musescore 2:
https://musescore.org/en/2.0
 

SONAR will only foul up the timing if the notes or more than 50% of the quantize resolution away from where they're supposed to be. No software can read your mind in this respect; your timing has to be reasonably close to what was intended, and you have to choose the largest resolution that fits that intent.

Why not enter the notes(and rests) in through step record?

Thanks for help...

I'm afraid quantisation isn't working on this piece...it's amazing how a note slightly out of time can disrupt rhythm.
Yes I will try step recording and hope that alleviates the timing problems but in the staff view the notes and rests are correct yet the actual musical sound is wrong here and there. I guess it's the syncopated nature of the piece as well.

SONAR's staff view will not notate what you've described correctly, but it will play it correctly if it's right in the Piano Roll View. Rhythm and phrasing are strongly affected by the actual as-played duration and dynamics. Even if the notation is technically accurate, the musical result may be far from what you'd expect to hear from a human performance.