Hi, I've got my sonarX3 setup on a custom built windows 7 rig (non-touch) , and I have a windows 8.1 dell touchscreen 23" which I've been trying to turn into a midi controller to send midi over the network.
 
Finally got something working using rptMidi to connect the two pcs and a windows 8.1 app from the app store named yMidi, gives you 2 views, first one is a touch screen keyboard a selection of vertical faders, a pan control + X/Y pad, and a 2nd view of 16 velocity sensitive pads (centre of pad is full volume fading to the edges). Settings can be saved & recalled. its basic but functional and when coupled with the Matrix View of Sonar = clip trigger total fun!!!  beat programming is also great, with the velocity sensitivity feature - saves editing with a mouse. 
current version just £1.99, developer says he's working on a new version has also said he'd implement some of my suggestions :)) - and it would be a free upgrade when next version comes out..
 
anyone else done anything with touchscreens that they'd care to enlighten us with ? I'd like to be able to customise the layouts of the touchscreen controls (i.e add faders, buttons etc)..im also looking at the Smithson Martin Emulator Pro..hopefully they are sending me a beta version to look at.

I've used rtpMIDI and touchDAW to remote control Sonar via a Kindle. It worked surprising well. Great for controlling the transport or tweaking levels while tracking. rtpMIDI is really quite handy. I have used it to connect guitar to MIDI programs running on a remote PC to Sonar Synths over ethernet LAN with virtually zero added MIDI latency.

thanks for responding :).. ive also had a go with TouchDaw on my android tablet, just the free version and it had a Sonar template/setting, but it didn't seem to work too well. If I setup a synth like TTs1, the faders did move the volume level fader on the synths mixer.. but things like the play 'button' on touchdaw didn't start sonar playing..I've probably missed some setting out somewhere, did you have to do anything in Sonar to make TouchDaw work properly?

No, I don't think so. I did buy the full version for like $5.
The transport controls worked without me doing anything.T he only issue I had was that the touchDAW master fader moved the mains fader rather than the Sonar master fader. I think the Mackie protocol does this. Did you choose the Mackie protocl in Sonar ?
 

no I didn't do anything in sonar, are you referring to the prefernces/midi/control surfaces? if so I have 3 entires there for Mackie.  Mackie Control C4, Mackie Control XT and just plain Mackie Control.
I'll reinstall the touchdaw stuff and have another go, that way I can have 2 touchscreen surfaces .. 1 over Ethernet 1 over wifi... use the big screen for the fun stuff and the little screen for things like play/stop/record, output levels..

No I mean I did not have to map controls with ACT or anything like that.
I setup rtpMIDI on the PC and the Kindle, selected the control surface in Sonar and it just worked.
I used the plain Mackie protocol.
Here is a video that shows the whole setup thing with rtpMIDI, touchDAW and Sonar. 
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KcCoa7JLddI
The video shows Asian language Sonar but there are English captions.
I think there are some more videos too. Google "TouchDAW Sonar".
I used info on the TouchDAW or rtpMIDI site but the video is probably quicker.
I had no issues with using TouchDAW/Kindle simultaneously with my normal Tascam Fw1884 control surface or my Axiom-61 kbd where I have some controls mapped to synth parameters.
 

sounds like fun
 
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thanks for the link and info microapp, looking forward to getting it working (unless its just my tablet that sucks)
 
yes AT, yMidi - its enormous fun..I've got midi/audio groove cips triggering remotely from the matrix view experimenting with some clips latched, some not, all perfectly beat sync'd. can either use it to toggle a clip on/off or press and hold the 'pads' in a sort of chord playing style to play combinations of clips which then cutoff when you release the pads..my setup uses 2 sets of stereo outputs going into a dj mixer which im also 'hands on' with. so im basically dj-ing with lots of different musical elements instead of my own musical creations instead of whole tracks..and the mixer output is then fed backinto a line input on another sound card for recording purposes so I can capture the 'live' mix...epic playing fun. instead of spending hours copy/pasting stuff.

I use Remote Desktop on a Surface. Remote Desktop should also work on your Laptop.

One thing I could not get working was mapping the touchDAW XY control to the joystick in Z3TA+2.
This was the reason I originally set all this up. If anyone has done this, let me know.
But I found this setup useful. You are not going to want to mix a song on  touchDAW but tweaking levels or controlling the transport while recording yourself in a booth or behind gobos is pretty cool.