I haven't tried that yet. I didn't have to before but who knows what's going on. So I'll try that and post back.

I haven't used the tools copy feature for a few months so I don't understand what could have changed, but then again there's been a few windows updates I. That time too.

There is also a typo in key ExePath, your example shows exePath.

scook
Do you run SONAR as administrator? If so, I believe you will need to setup the other programs with the same permissions.

OK. I've tried running the programs involved, Sonar, RX4 and SF11 as administrator. I made the change on the executable file not just an icon. No change. Still doesn't work.
RX4 opens, tells me it can't open Tool copy ***.wav. Once I clear the error it just sits there. The RX4 status bar (left bottom) says No file data.
SF11 just opens with an error saying it can't load the tool copy file but it uses a path that doesn't exist that is. C:/Program Files (x86)/Sony/Sound Forge 11/2/tool copy******.wav.
I don't know why it creates the folder '2' as it doesn't exist.

I've yet to try changin all programs to NOT run as admin but I can't see that making a difference.

Update for mcdonalk:
When I load up an audio file into RX4, Sonar and SF11, I can select ASIO for all three programs with the same outputs and play all 3 files simultaneously without issue. It doesn't matter which program has focus.

Here's my registry entry.  I've never seen that extra entry appearing though.
 
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Cakewalk Music Software\Tools Menu\7iZotope RX 4]
"ExePath"="D:\\Apps\\iZotope\\RX 4\\win64\\iZotope RX 4.exe"
"MenuText"="iZotope RX 4"
"StatusBarText"="Run iZotope RX 4"
"Type"="WaveEditor"
"RegionFlag"=dword:00000000


Important to note, the reg text dump shows paths with double slashes, but inside regedit they are just single slashes.
 
I never run anything as Admin (though my account does have full escalation rights).
 
One thing that is kind of strange about Platinum (that I don't remember seeing in X3e) is I can't open a wave editor on a Groove looped audio clip.  Only "plain" audio.  It may have always been like that though,  I just can't remember.
 
As for what/who/when that extra registry entry is coming from the best tool for debugging that is the Microsoft SysInternals tool Procmon.  It can log every single file and registry access any software makes.  I often use it to work out why software has gone wrong and to figure out what software is looking for.
 
https://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinternals/bb896645
 
Bad news though, it's very technical and not exactly a end-user tool.
 
As for the multiple apps sharing the driver problem it really depends on the driver developer.  Some are better at sharing than others.  My Saffire will share (with or without the Sonar checkbox) as long as every ASIO app agrees on the sample settings (48khz).  Software that uses MME mode will share anything, it's only the ASIO driver that has control issues.  Hence my reason for letting Sonar have the ASIO and my wave editors use the MME device.  This works because (for example) other apps can still play bells/Skype notifications/YouTube/Browser sounds/etc) even when Sonar is open.  The MME driver is much more flexible than ASIO drivers.
 
Running Sonar as Admin will vastly effect how it launches other apps.  And those other apps may not be very friendly when running under settings they weren't installed with.  Temporary file paths are very different.  Access rights are different.  The registry is different.  Network file shares mounted as the user may not be available.  It's just a bad idea to run software as Admin without a very good reason a full understanding of what that may involve.
 
If I were having problems I'd use Procmon to record everything and look at what files Sonar and the wave editor are accessing and then try and figure out why/change that so it's correct.  I'd also consider deleting all the tool menu entries from the registry except one (back them up with regedit).  Might want to reboot once too (though usually that's a fools errand).
 
One handy tip, Sonar sorts the tool menu (technically the menu is now called Utilities but the second half of the Utilities menu (after the seperator) is the "Tools" menu) using the names of the registry entries (which isn't the same as what is shown to the user) so you can stick a number in front of the name in order to control the order.  As you can see above my RX4 entry is named "7iZotope RX 4" since I want it to show up 8th on the tools menu.  (I have tools numbered 0-7).
 
 
 

Am I the only that finds this whole process ridiculously complicated for an end user? Why isn't there an "add Wave Editor" dialog or something that simply lets you point to a program and give the menu item a name? I'm pretty sure most DAWs work that way.

Sanderxpander
Am I the only that finds this whole process ridiculously complicated for an end user? Why isn't there an "add Wave Editor" dialog or something that simply lets you point to a program and give the menu item a name? I'm pretty sure most DAWs work that way.

1. I don't know of any other daws that let you pass internal audio to an external editor and save it back.

2. As per Noel's post #12 in the following thread the feature is undocumented and unsupported.
http://forum.cakewalk.com...-m1849148.aspx#1850413
3. There was a 3rd party utility that was called Sonar Utils, that used to do what you ask and more. Unfortunately it was never updated to work for Sonar x64 so we lost the feature. The gent that developed it left off using Sonar.

msorrels
Here's my registry entry.  I've never seen that extra entry appearing though.
 
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Cakewalk Music Software\Tools Menu\7iZotope RX 4]
"ExePath"="D:\\Apps\\iZotope\\RX 4\\win64\\iZotope RX 4.exe"
"MenuText"="iZotope RX 4"
"StatusBarText"="Run iZotope RX 4"
"Type"="WaveEditor"
"RegionFlag"=dword:00000000



Important to note, the reg text dump shows paths with double slashes, but inside regedit they are just single slashes.
 
I never run anything as Admin (though my account does have full escalation rights).
 
One thing that is kind of strange about Platinum (that I don't remember seeing in X3e) is I can't open a wave editor on a Groove looped audio clip.  Only "plain" audio.  It may have always been like that though,  I just can't remember.
 
As for what/who/when that extra registry entry is coming from the best tool for debugging that is the Microsoft SysInternals tool Procmon.  It can log every single file and registry access any software makes.  I often use it to work out why software has gone wrong and to figure out what software is looking for.
 
https://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinternals/bb896645
 
Bad news though, it's very technical and not exactly a end-user tool.
 
As for the multiple apps sharing the driver problem it really depends on the driver developer.  Some are better at sharing than others.  My Saffire will share (with or without the Sonar checkbox) as long as every ASIO app agrees on the sample settings (48khz).  Software that uses MME mode will share anything, it's only the ASIO driver that has control issues.  Hence my reason for letting Sonar have the ASIO and my wave editors use the MME device.  This works because (for example) other apps can still play bells/Skype notifications/YouTube/Browser sounds/etc) even when Sonar is open.  The MME driver is much more flexible than ASIO drivers.
 
Running Sonar as Admin will vastly effect how it launches other apps.  And those other apps may not be very friendly when running under settings they weren't installed with.  Temporary file paths are very different.  Access rights are different.  The registry is different.  Network file shares mounted as the user may not be available.  It's just a bad idea to run software as Admin without a very good reason a full understanding of what that may involve.
 
If I were having problems I'd use Procmon to record everything and look at what files Sonar and the wave editor are accessing and then try and figure out why/change that so it's correct.  I'd also consider deleting all the tool menu entries from the registry except one (back them up with regedit).  Might want to reboot once too (though usually that's a fools errand).
 
One handy tip, Sonar sorts the tool menu (technically the menu is now called Utilities but the second half of the Utilities menu (after the seperator) is the "Tools" menu) using the names of the registry entries (which isn't the same as what is shown to the user) so you can stick a number in front of the name in order to control the order.  As you can see above my RX4 entry is named "7iZotope RX 4" since I want it to show up 8th on the tools menu.  (I have tools numbered 0-7).
 

All I've fixed so far is the spurious @="". I exported the key, made corrections including putting all the entries in alphabetical order. I deleted the keys and reimported the edited version. All good. Yay. HOWEVER
I still can't make it work.
For some reason instead of passing the tool copy file to the Temp folder as in your example it wants to put it into a folder named '2' in Sonarplt.exe home folder. Which it does.
It wants to do this for SF11, RX4 by looking for a folder '2' in their respective home directories. Even if I create one there it doesn't work. The file from Sonar is placed into C:/Program Files/Cakewalk/Sonar/2/. But not copied to the respective program

So strange. I'll keep searching the millions of entries in ProcMon.

Yipppppeeeeeeee!

Found the problem.

Sonar's Cakewalk.ini file has an entry for ToolFileDir= ( I accidentally had (=2) should be = )

A few months back I edited cakewalk.ini for VstPluginsFormat=2 and by some typo the numeral 2 carried over to the above entry which was just a couple of lines higher up.

The value should be unqualified just as I have it written above. ie. =

Once I did that, tool copy placed the file In the temp folder and all tool programs were able to find it. Yay phew!!

mudgel

Sanderxpander
Am I the only that finds this whole process ridiculously complicated for an end user? Why isn't there an "add Wave Editor" dialog or something that simply lets you point to a program and give the menu item a name? I'm pretty sure most DAWs work that way.

1. I don't know of any other daws that let you pass internal audio to an external editor and save it back.

2. As per Noel's post #12 in the following thread the feature is undocumented and unsupported.
3. There was a 3rd party utility that was called Sonar Utils, that used to do what you ask and more. Unfortunately it was never updated to work for Sonar x64 so we lost the feature. The gent that developed it left off using Sonar.

1. I know for a fact at least Ableton and Logic do this and simply let you browse for your preferred wave editor. Not sure about other DAWs but it seems a pretty common feature to me.
2. If undocumented and unsupported perhaps they need to take down this document
https://www.cakewalk.com/...e-to-SONARs-Tools-menu
from the support site. Seems pretty bad policy to me to direct users to hack their registry.
3. I know it's harsh but I don't think I should need to care about why they haven't developed this. It has been in this state for years. Whatever excuse they had has long since evaporated. I really hope this will be part of an oncoming update, it isn't exactly something complicated.

I am still working the issue with Lynx, providing daily reports on observations that they request.