Simple question

shift+b shows and hides the busses. You will probably have a master bus routed to your audio interface. You can draw volume envelopes on busses.

I always interpreted it that the main outs were just a graphical representation of the connection to the output device. They have a master volume control that can be automated but the output itself is not displayed in the track view since by the time things leave the master outs--they are logically out of Sonar and into your interface. If you want to display a combined total output you could route everything to a single track and work with it in track view.

None of the above seem to be working. Pressing shift + b will show or hide busses on the bottom of the screen, but it doesn't show the Master bus. I can toggle with the Inspector on the side of the track view. But I can't think of a simple way of getting the Master bus visible on the track view.
 
Let me try to explain again. On the track view you can expand a track to show the volume level, and can fade in and fade out individual tracks. I want to do the same thing with the master output. All of the tracks output to tracks 1 & 2 of my Edirol UA-101. At the bottom of the track view you can flip on and off various busses. However, on one of my song files I have a Master output bus which represents everything going out of Sonar. I don't know how it got there. I can fade out using the volume automation drawing thing like on the individual tracks. However, on all my hundreds of other song files the Master Bus doesn't appear in the track screen.
 
The Master Bus is visible in the console view, where you can move the volume up and down. I just want the Master Bus to show up on the track view so that I can draw the volume fade out.
 
I haven't tried slartabartfast's suggestion because creating a new bus isn't the same as the Master bus. If the Master bus exists in the console view, why wouldn't it exist in the track view?

I imagine there must be some difference between how I created my one file with a Master Output and how I normally create my other files (most of my files have been transferred from earlier versions of Cakewalk products), because in this one file I have the Master, Metronome and Preview busses. All the others don't.
 
I'll try to do what scook suggests, but I still find it amazing that a Master bus wouldn't be a default in all files in the track view.
 
Wish me luck.

When SONAR starts a new project, unless a specific template is loaded, SONAR loads the normal.cwt project template file. The normal.cwt has changed between versions of SONAR. Moreover, it is possible to customize the normal template. The location of the project templates is defined in Preferences > File > Folder Locations Templates.
 
A Master Bus (or any bus) is not a requirement for SONAR to work. It is recommended to use a Master Bus and a Master Bus is part of the the default project template (normal.cwt) for some time.
 
If a project was created with template that lacked a Master Bus, SONAR will not create the bus automatically, after the fact. It is a simple matter to add a Master Bus to existing projects. Going forward make sure to select a project template that contains a Master bus.

Okay. I created a Master bus and directed all the appropriate tracks to it. The Master track exists in the console track, and it exists in the track manager in the track view. But even though it is checked to be visible it isn't. This doesn't make sense.
 
How could you have the Master bus visible in the console view, visible as checked to be visible in the Track Manager, but invisible in the track view?
 
Anyone?

Assuming the bus pane in the Track view is expanded, I do not know. Was the project created in X2 or a different CW DAW?