Session Drummer 3

Did you go to Insert | Soft Synth | Session Drummer 3?  If so, Sonar should add Session Drummer three tracks to your project.

When you do the step above, if you select Simple Instrument Track, you will have a MIDI track for drum notes that also plays the audio.  If you select MIDI Source and All Audio Outputs: Stereo, you will get one MIDI track where you put the drum notes, and 12 audio tracks so you can have different drums on different channels/tracks when you mix.

In either case, you will need to click on Session Drummer 3 in the Synth Rack to open the interface, unless it opened automatically when you added the tracks.

Then you will need to click on LOAD PROGRAM to pick a drum kit.  If you successfully select a drum kit, you will be able to click on the drum pictures to hear the sounds and put MIDI notes in the MIDI track for your drum part.  Loading the program will also load sample MIDI sequences you can play to hear how the drums sound (or to use in your song).

Go to the Mixer button in the drum interface to choose which drums go to which tracks.  You do this by changing the number at the bottom under each drum in the mixer.  (Note that 1 means the 1st audio track Session Drummer added--not necessarily track 1 in your project.  This is the least clear aspect of the interface.)  For example, I typically assign 1=Kick, 2=Snare/Sidestick, 3=Hi-Hat, 4=Toms, 5=Cymbals, and 6=Other Percussion (if applicable).  Since I select stereo tracks, this is plenty for me in most cases, but it's up to you how you do it.

I hope some of that answered your question.

are you sending the midi out of the drums to SD3? 

To set the MIDI output to SD3, are you referring to clicking on the box "Enable MIDI Output" in the "Insert Soft Synth Options" that comes up when you're going to open SD3?  

Thanks for everyone's help

Thanks!   I got it working.   :)