Well, brundefly is talking about PRV and you're talking about Staff View :-)
 
I actually have the same issue and reported it to CW, but the ticket was closed as unreproducible (CWBRN-23709).
Below are the steps I submitted:
 
1. Create a new project using the Normal project template.
2. Insert a MIDI track and hit Alt+3 to open the Piano Roll view.
3. Using whatever method you like (I used the Smart tool), enter/record note events on C5 and D5, like this:

4. Hit Alt+6 to open the Staff view.
5. Select the Smart tool in the Control Bar and right-click each note to open the Note Properties dialog box.
 
[Expected Results]
All notes open the Note Properties dialog box when right-clicked.
 
[Actual Results]
All C5 notes show a right-click menu when right-clicked, like this:

OH that would make total sense that you can drag them bigger/smaller in PRV haha. Yea I should have guessed that.
 
And yep you've got my same issue. It's totally intermittent for me though. Usually if I just close the Staff view, go play around on the internet for a few minutes and come back it'll start working haha. But it's really annoying. Maybe i'll open a ticket too...

D'oh! Should have guessed I needed to re-read the OP.   Sorry about that. It's so unusual for people to be working in SONAR's despised staff view. Funny, though, because I just spent a bunch of time last week working on converting some MIDI to notation - unusual for me, but I was working on someone else's music. I did most of the editing in the PRV, and just used the Staff View as a reference.

There is a problem with this not specific to the Smart Tool.  Right-clicking on a note with the arrow or pencil should bring up properties, but its behavior is intermittent, especially if the note is off the staff (using ledger lines).
 
Yesterday, I screwed things up by accidentally clicking Fit to Improvisation when I was trying to edit note properties.
 
By the way, this issue was mentioned in this forum a few months ago.  I apologize that I do not remember who started the thread, but there was no solution.

Thanks Konrad. So, maybe the OP could report the issue to CW with a link to this thread? The problem seems to occur randomly so I don't think there's any definite procedure to reproduce the issue (just like the steps I submitted failed to recreated the issue on their end).

Yes - this is a known problem. If the note on which you're trying to open the properties dialog is BOTH below the staff AND the lowest note on the track, you get a context menu instead. If a note fits that criteria, I can't get the properties dialog to come up regardless of which tool I use, but some folks could by changing tools (but in a weirdly inconsistent way from system to system). I don't have X3, but in X2, the problem is reproducible on any system I've had a chance to test.
 
This has been an issue since at least X2 (I went from 8.3.1 to X2, so I can't say anything about X1). When X2 came out, I'm pretty sure I filed a ticket about it, and never received any response. That was the early Roland period, so....  I did see someone mention somewhere on this forum that it had been addressed in X3, but I may be wrong. I'll dig around and see if I can find the thread.
 
The workaround is clumsy, but I do almost all my MIDI programming in staff view, so I really don't have a choice. If the note you're trying to work on won't open the properties dialog, insert a lower note somewhere nearby. Edit the properties on the note you originally wanted to work on. Delete the added note (or keep working on other notes that would otherwise be un-editable, but remember to delete the extraneous one when you're done). Another workaround is to insert a note at measure 1:1:000, and use the PRV or event list to set the MIDI note to C-1 and its volume parameter to 0.

I'm curious now to see if this really is the same problem persisting into X3 - if the criteria above doesn't fit your situation, let me know. It's always possible it's something different going on that cropped up in X3.

<edit! found the original post I put up back in 2012: http://forum.cakewalk.com/minor-X2-notation-bug-m2678597.aspx>

Thanks, kicksville. I've just run the same test again and confirmed what you're saying is totally true. So, I re-reported this issue (but this time I used the steps you posted in the other thread) to CW via Problem Reporter (CWBRN-24292 - "Lowest notes below staff fail to open Note Properties dialog when right-clicked")
 
I'll let you all know when the ticket status has been changed (hopefully to "Submitted to Development")
 
Below are the steps and results I submitted this time:
 
[Steps]
1. Insert a MIDI track and open staff view.
2. Input a note below the staff (doesn't matter which clef you're in), for example, the C one ledger line down from the staff in treble clef.
3. Right-click on the note.
 
[Expected Result]
Whatever tool (Smart/Select/Move/Edit/Draw/Erase) you use, it should bring up the Note Properties dialog.
 
[Actual Result]
With some tools (Smart/Select/Draw in my case), it brings up the staff view context menu instead.
Now insert a second note lower than the initial note, for example, the A below the C from step 2.
Right-clicking on the C now gives you the Note Properties dialog as it should, but right-clicking on the A will ONLY bring up the staff view context menu.

Wow that's some great info you guys. I'll definitely try the lower note thing today to see if that works for me too, and then file a ticket today. Glad to see I'm not the only one.
 
By the way the funny thing about me using staff view is I'm not even a classically trained composer, it's just the view I've gotten used to over the last 15 years for doing my note editing. It's just what I know haha. It's also part of the reason I prefer Cakewalk/Sonar over any other DAWs I've tried, because the way I work, things are just so much smoother when I use Staff view.
 
Anyway yea I'm gonna read through all of this, and then I'll definitely file a ticket.

Probably a known issue already. I found some old references. Seems it may have started with the X series. According to the last post in this thread, it's not a problem with the Move and Edit tools; other tools give the layout menu when right-clicking on notes below the staff:
 
http://forum.cakewalk.com...tion-bug-m2678597.aspx

I do 90% of my composition in Staff View, so if this trick works for me, it will really help.  I will just insert a low note with zero velocity at the start of the track and then erase it when I am done.