Once again I find myself completely frustrated and baffled exporting stems from Sonar. I just exported stems from a 10 track project, with a view to exporting them into Mixbus. The idea was to have each stem start at measure 1 and comprise the full length of the track so that I can import them into Mixbus and all the audio will be lined up exactly how it was in Sonar. 
 
 So I started with the kick track. The kick in this project starts at measure 5. I selected the whole length of the track in the timeline starting at measure 1, selected the kick track, went to the export dialog, made sure "tracks" was selected, made sure everything was checked so that my FX on the track would be exported too, and then hit export. The resulting track was perfect - I dragged it back into Sonar to check that it lined up with my original track, and it did. 
 
Then I did the same with the other percussion, making sure I was using exactly the same settings and exactly the same range on the timeline. Everything lined up just how it should. So I continued with the rest of the tracks - same settings and same range each time, making doubly sure it started at measure 1. I felt confident I was exporting my stems correctly, as I should.
 
And then I imported them into Mixbus, and to my frustration found that two of the remaining tracks had exported stems which started right at the start of their audio, without the empty space at the front enabling me to position them correctly in Mixbus. And one of the tracks had just exported complete silence. I am absolutely 100% positive that I used exactly the same settings each time and didn't change anything. I was really careful to get it right given how easy it is to fall flat on your face with Sonar's export dialog. And yet still, not what I wanted. 
 
This isn't the first time I've had inconsistent results when exporting a series of stems either. It seems Sonar just never gets it 100% right. 

Why are you exporting them one at a time? It's easier to export all the tracks at once, and they'll save from start to finish.
 
A couple weeks ago I did backups of all the Neo- projects by exporting all the individual tracks for each song, so that if the world comes to an end, I'll be able to import them into whatever DAW remains. I dragged them all back in to a new project just to make sure each song played back as it did when mixed. They all did. FWIW I did not use Broadcast WAV export.
 
I won't be able to do much follow-up, I'm into Day 3 of trying to get home from Ft. Lauderdale. But I can give more detailed steps upon my return.
 
[Edit] The SONAR Techniques column in the current issue of Sound on Sound goes into exporting in quite a bit of detail. It seemed some people have issues with the export process, so I thought it would be a good idea to get it all down in writing.

Anderton
Why are you exporting them one at a time? It's easier to export all the tracks at once, and they'll save from start to finish.
 
A couple weeks ago I did backups of all the Neo- projects by exporting all the individual tracks for each song, so that if the world comes to an end, I'll be able to import them into whatever DAW remains. I dragged them all back in to a new project just to make sure each song played back as it did when mixed. They all did. FWIW I did not use Broadcast WAV export.
 
I won't be able to do much follow-up, I'm into Day 3 of trying to get home from Ft. Lauderdale. But I can give more detailed steps upon my return.
 
[Edit] The SONAR Techniques column in the current issue of Sound on Sound goes into exporting in quite a bit of detail. It seemed some people have issues with the export process, so I thought it would be a good idea to get it all down in writing.

The only reason why I was doing them one at a time was because I wanted to make absolutely sure they were being exported properly before I started the Mixbus session, and once I'd done the first couple successfully I figured I was on a roll and might as well continue one at a time, checking them as I went. Since everything was set up, including the timeline selection, it was actually a very quick process of just selecting the track, going into the export dialog, typing in a desired name and hitting export. If there were more tracks in the project I probably would have ended up exporting them all in one go, although I don't like how you have to specify a common prefix for the filename (why can't it just allow you to skip the filename and create all names from the tracks without the prefix?).

I happen to understand your workflow sharke ...
I do a lot of single track exports myself going from SPlat into Mixbus ...
I have my reasons and I will leave it at that for now ....
When things get complex in SONAR I just prefer to freeze the track first before I export it
Since you have paid attention to the little details of having the Mixbus session set to what you have in SONAR , you should be good to go ...
 
Kenny
 
 

I first bounce each track to one clip,
then extend (NOT move!) the start of each clip to the very beginning of the song,
then bounce to clip again.
 
I then Save As (with Copy audio files) to a new project
then go to that project's audio folder, rename the audio files to exclude the numeric suffix
 
...and them's my stems. All full-length, all beginning from song start.
 
But I like the Freeze Track idea. Must try that next time.

You could bounce or freeze the tracks then just drag them out of Sonar... no?

I've never had this problem, but I always export them all in one go. Is it possible that you accidentally selected a clip and not a track, changing the timeline selection?

Sanderxpander
I've never had this problem, but I always export them all in one go. Is it possible that you accidentally selected a clip and not a track, changing the timeline selection?

Nope had the track selected and the timeline selected across the whole project. It's not the first time this has happened. One thing I did notice is that sometimes after the export was finished, the timeline area selected had been changed during the export process to beginning at the start of the clip being exported, so I would have to make the selection again starting at measure 1 for the next clip. And then that one would export incorrectly. So I'm wondering if there's a bug which sometimes ignores the selection during export and instead starts it at the first clip.

sharke

Sanderxpander
I've never had this problem, but I always export them all in one go. Is it possible that you accidentally selected a clip and not a track, changing the timeline selection?

Nope had the track selected and the timeline selected across the whole project. It's not the first time this has happened. One thing I did notice is that sometimes after the export was finished, the timeline area selected had been changed during the export process to beginning at the start of the clip being exported, so I would have to make the selection again starting at measure 1 for the next clip. And then that one would export incorrectly. So I'm wondering if there's a bug which sometimes ignores the selection during export and instead starts it at the first clip.

This is why you want to do them all at once. As soon as you open the opportunity to introduce variables, the odds of variables occurring increases.
 
@soens - yes, that works fine too.

i'm curious as to why bounce/freeze/export produce different results, when in theory they should all be the same?