So, I just installed the new 'Braintree' update to Sonar Platinum. The first thing that happens is that it says "5 New Plugins detected" (or words to that effect).
 
What is a practical way for me to be able to act upon that, not knowing what has just been added? If one uses custom or edited FX/synth menus then these new plugins don't appear in them. If I go to the plugin manager, then I have to wade through everything and try and spot any with names I don't recognise; tricky when you have over 400 plugins there.
 
Suggestions?

The release PDF would be a good place to start http://static.cakewalk.co..._Braintree_Release.pdf

Yeah, I read that, but it's not exactly clear which are new VST fx, which are VST instruments, what exactly they'll be called, etc. I'm not really looking forward to having to do this manual fix-up job after every update.

I agree. That is why I do not use custom layouts.

Do you use very few 3rd party add-ons? I have loads, many of which I keep around for old projects, admittedly, but there's no way I could navigate them without having classified them manually.
 
Ideally what Sonar would do is either somehow highlight any plugins that are new, or better still, allow me to somehow compare what plugins are in my menu with the ones that are not.

Kylotan
Do you use very few 3rd party add-ons?

IDK, the scanner reports 751 plug-ins.

Haha, that's almost double what I have. So I have no idea how you keep track of them all. If I had to remember them all by name I'd go mad - so I have the FX grouped by type (broadly similar to the hierarchy Sonar comes pre-installed with) and the synths grouped as well (Drums, Electronic, Chiptunes, Orchestral/Realistic, Samplers, and Unclassified).
 
Still, the question remains - what do Cakewalk expect us to do?

I see a feature request:
 
Plugin Manager highlights plugins that are either in or not (whatever is easier) in the currently loaded layout.
 
Regards,
Dan
 

Kylotan
Haha, that's almost double what I have. So I have no idea how you keep track of them all.

Some say I have a good memory. I do appreciate the way VST3's are organized. A lot of my plug-ins have VST3 format which helps.

As far as I can tell, with the Braintree update, you don't need to make any changes to your custom plugin layout.  The new VSTs are updates to ones that already exist, so they should already be in your custom layout from before.  The new ProChannel module, as well as the new Anderton goodies, should get added automatically.  
 
The only manual thing you need to do is Import the new Impulse Responses into REmatrix Solo.
 
Someone please correct me if I'm mistaken.