I encountered the situation tonight of "select all" and having the ending extend past the song. This is no new thing, so I just selected the region in the timeline and Cut Special, including automation. But...it didn't work, which was odd because it almost always worked as expected.
 
I started looking for events, and it seems the issue of not being able to erase occurs if two nodes are in the same automation curve and located at the same time (i.e., one drops down immediately to the other, no time interval at all). They won't be erased as described above. As soon as I separated the nodes so they weren't on top of each other, delete worked as expected. Can anyone confirm?
 
 

Sounds like a good candidate for one cause of the problem.
I have encountered the never-ending-song phenomenon in projects that have no automation.
In my case, at one time it looked like archiving tracks would also cause the same. but I haven't been
able to reproduce that.

Kalle Rantaaho
Sounds like a good candidate for one cause of the problem.
I have encountered the never-ending-song phenomenon in projects that have no automation.

As far as I can tell SONAR is always recording automation, even if it's just a straight line - I believe that's how it knows where to restore fader values when you open a project. For example, if you set a fader to -6 at the start of a track, SONAR will write an automation value of -6. You need to enable the Write automation only if you want to deviate from this static value. Try this:
 
1. Create a new project.
2. Insert an audio track. 
3. Start recording.
4. Stop recording.
5. Unfold the automation lanes, and you'll see automation has been written for the current fader and pan positions, and an automation node has been inserted where you stopped recording.

it is ridiculous to still have this issue though Craig. Surely a zero track which you make the length of the song (but can also split into verse/chorus etc and which locks into position everything below it to aid track reorganisation, unless unlocked) is needed or some other definitive way of defining start and end points?
good find though if that is the case. I wonder if tempo alterations post the end of the song also affect things?

mgh
I wonder if tempo alterations post the end of the song also affect things?

If there's ANY data (marker, automation, tempo change, whatever), SONAR assumes it's part of the song and therefore, the song isn't over until it hits the last piece of data.
 
The most common way a song goes beyond what I want is if I let record run too long while doing a take. Stopping record places an event, which SONAR assumes is where I chose the end to be. I've always been able to get rid of extraneous events by cutting, except now I've found a situation that doesn't recognize cutting. I'll alert the Bakers to it.

Why don't the developers just add an End of File/Project feature?
The documented workaround of placing Now Time at the end and selecting what you want rendered is laughable considering this touted as a "full-featured professional DAW".
 
Oh dear, no doubt all the Sonar zealots, including people marked as new users (like me) who seem to know everything about everything, will castigate me for that comment.
They usually tell you that either your computer is a piece of junk or else they imply that you are an idiot for criticising their beloved DAW.
That's why I've given up on the forums: too much vitriol.
Apologies to the decent people who are constructive and genuinely try to help people. You are in the minority, but are very much appreciated I assure you.

It needs fixing for sure. I do agree though we do need an end of project marker facility, even if it's just an option, although I would have thought those who have left Sonar in favour of using fruity loops probably wouldn't give a crap at this point...

They usually tell you that either your computer is a piece of junk or else they imply that you are an idiot for criticising their beloved DAW.
 
Maybe your computer IS a piece of junk AND you ARE also an idiot....  Maybe.... :) Let's not discount any possibilities in our search for the truth- Quote: Fox Mulder

GMcT, I thought you were leaving us and had said goodbye.  If not, I'm glad you are hanging in.
 
I have never found people here to be abrasive and most of them are open-minded about other DAWs.  I use Sonar because I have been with Cakewalk a long time and know it, it has a Staff View, and has a lot of bundled content.  (Plus I like the VS-700 Studio, although it is now out of production.) If I had to change DAWs, I certainly could, but it's like going from Mac to Windows or vice-versa: a big change unless there is a good reason.
 
I have run into a couple of know-it-alls here, but not very many.  Most people here are really nice.  If, however, someone comes in spewing insults towards the product or the staff--which happens at times--it is not going to be well-received. After all, this is a Cakewalk-sponsored forum with mostly satisfied users.
 
No one here is brainwashed, though, there is plenty of honest criticism and lots of constructive suggestions.
 
For the record, I have had a large number of difficult problems but most were related to a faulty installation or a system configuration problem.  And most DAWs will sometimes crash due to a VST issue.  Plug-ins in any software can be tricky.

GMcT
Why don't the developers just add an End of File/Project feature?

 
It already has this feature. The last event is the end of the project. You don't have to do anything special to mark it. You only have to do something special if the last event is spurious. SONAR will not generate a spurious event on its own; you have to create it, whether by accident or design. 
 

The documented workaround of placing Now Time at the end and selecting what you want rendered is laughable considering this touted as a "full-featured professional DAW".

 
No workaround is needed to render a project, nor does the Now time need to be placed anywhere. Choose "Select All," and all tracks will be selected automatically from the start of the project to the end of the project. You can then render. That is simpler than having to do one operation to select all the tracks, and another to insert an "end of project" marker.
 
However, if you want to render only a portion of the project you can drag across a portion of the timeline. I would not consider that a workaround; SONAR cannot guess which part of a project you want to render. 
 

Oh dear, no doubt all the Sonar zealots, including people marked as new users (like me) who seem to know everything about everything, will castigate me for that comment.

 
No, but people who know more than you will correct inaccurate information so beginners are not misled.