Outboard effects

I'm trying to get into outboard gear and need some help figuring out how to set it up.  Let's say I wanted to track vocals will a compressor other than the one included in the V-Studio.  I know I could easily put it before the V-Studio's preamps, but I've read I should be putting it after.  I assume this is done with the 1/4" Outs on the back of the unit.  I have sent tracks through them before in post (sent clean guitar tracks to the Axe-FX), but never been able to use them to track something.  I would love to see a diagram on how to set up outboard gear; I assume I have to do something in the software as well, because sending cables out of the V-Studio into my compressor doesn't do anything.

I also have a Digimax (8 pres) ADATed into it and want to put gates on them; I have a Drawmer 4-channel gate.  Should I just put it in line, ie:  Mic ---xlr---> Gate ---xlr---> Digimax ---ADAT---> V-Studio ---USB---> Computer?

Thanks.

That aside, the way to do what you're talking about is through Sonar itself. You can't route inputs it anything other than Main or Sub using the hardware. In Sonar, though, you can set up track with the input set to where you're coming in, output set to the channel you're going out on, and use Sonar's input monitoring to make it all work.