I think really on an ideal system under ideal circumstances we wouldn't (shouldn't) have to worry about such things but let's face it... we are all working on various PC configs (and those who aren't... like the Bootcampers are even worse of than better). My rig is good but I built it myself and I am no DAW builder. Most other are working with off the shelf stuff that's been tweaked or have done like I did and built their rigs themselves. Then there's hardware and blah dee freaking blah... that adds all sorts of complexities.
If I had my druthers I'd be running a professionally built DAW tweaked to specifically handle Sonar and all my various outboard crap and a/d converters.
When you think about how insanely complex things like audiosnap/melodyne calculations must be in the grand scheme of things (we are what... like only fifty-60 years removed from lightbulb and punchcard computing... lulz) then it makes sense that the program may vomit all over itself on a consumer or even "prosumer" PC.
To me I think my issues are HDD related and an inability of the DAW to recall such inticate silliness fast enough. The CPU may be willing, the RAM may have enough space but something somewhere is bumpling about and borking things up... so I just try to be careful and aware of the limitations of my personal home technology.
I would like to point out some of the videos on this very site produced by Cakewalk themselves on their own ultra tweaked, high performance machines. If you look at the old CakeTV Drum Production webinar with Seth and Ryan (or other vids here and even on Groove3) you can see some of these strange graphical glitches occuring with Audiosnap (and other areas of the program).
I recognized those little glitches immediately as I saw them but seeing how various doods just hammer through them gave me a little hope and I've learned to somewhat ignore them but also be aware of them as indicators that PERHAPS something was about to go all crashy smashy on me. Which is why I Save As repeatedly so when it DOES happen I've only lost maybe 5-20 minutes worth of work instead of 4+hours of work (which is what happened when I originally posted this thread).
I bounce and archive and freeze and watch my synth/vst count. I try to make sure I don't allow my project to have a million tracks with a million active takes. I keep the performance module open whenever possible to keep an eye on resource consumption. I micro manage all the other processes that might be going on on the system (like antivirus stuff, auto updates, internet/network weirdness).
Essentially I treat my rig like a living entity that b*tches and moans and cries and wheezes when I'm abusing it. If I listen and try to not kick it in the teeth any more than I need to I can get things done. If I don't... well there is a whole wack of hair pulling, screaming and running here to the forum to kvetch and try to sort out WTF I did wrong (which is time consuming and not pleasant for anyone involved).
My point is... don't temp fate. Before doing things like AS manipulation do a Save As, make a plan, do a bit of experimenting to see how that plan is working out and how your system is handling it THEN do another save as and start the work proper, do it quickly and in chunks bouncing and Save As'ing as you go.
It's annoying and semi time consuming to do things this way but since I've gotten ULTRA paranoid and cautious about stuff like this the amount of time and stress I've actually SAVED from avoiding epic catastrophes MORE than makes up for adding those steps into my workflow.
Sonar works better and better every year since I've owned it (like WAY better) but in computer terms we are essentially putting a man on the moon with some of these "simple" tasks we take for granted every few minutes or so.
Just taking a break from my tracking so I sorry for the long, boring, pseudo-philositechno post but really... unless you can buy a dedicated DAW built by a DAW builder caution and awareness of what your system is trying to tell you is advisable... and even if you do get the ultra high quality Studio Cat custom builds you still should be careful.
Cheers.