I found the X-ray feature, and that's not really what I want. If I have several guitar tracks, they all have the TH2 or similar, all have a reverb, and might all have a compressor, and certainly vocals will have comp and reverb, not to mention soft-synths like TT1, SI Bass, and possibly SI-drums for their respective MIDI applications. 
 
Is there a command that will minimize everything, and then the reverse of that if needed?

I'm not aware of one, but that doesn't mean it doesn't exist. However, if what you want is to make all extraneous windows go away at once, but you want that to be reversible, X-Ray really is your friend: just set the x-ray opacity to 1% (it doesn't let you use 0%, but 1% is functionally gone), and bind a key command to 'X-ray All FX/synths' (as opposed to basic X-ray, which only does one at a time). I use Y, which is not bound to anything else, and easy to do with one hand, and close to X, so easy to remember. Works for me!
 
Alternately, maybe a screenset? I don't use them because they seem to be too slow on my system, but I know others swear by them... 

OK is there a master list of key-bindings somewhere so I don't stomp on one when I try this? I imagine "X" is already in use?

See Keyboard Shortcuts in Preferences - select the 'Advanced' view.
 

What Arachnaut said... go to Preferences, make sure the Advanced view is selected, and down near the bottom you'll find Keyboard Shortcuts. You can use the 'Locate Key' command to see what's already bound by default, but even then you can override these with your own if you want. X is bound to Aim Assist, which is actually kind of useful, but you can change that if you want to use X for X-Ray All. You can also search for functions you might want to key-bind to, most are already bound to things but not all. 

It did not work the first time, the key didn't bind, though I thought it did. I just went in and did it again, set to 5% opacity, I may up it because it's nice to know I've done it, and there's no other way to undo it (perhaps un-minimizing a window at the bottom?). 
 
Was fooling with screensets too, nice to just BAM your way to the console view. But mostly I think the X-ray is he answer just fizz out the fx/plugins then fizz 'em back in, still maintaining your track and console views in some capacity.

Super swamped and distracted but wanted to toss some suggestions at this.
 
I use the dock for anything I need full access to as I work. No this is probably not EXACTLY what you are looking for (but it strikes me that each Console Strip or Track View strip/entry could really benefit from a Show/Hide button for all FX in the bin... by which I mean you could click it and the GUIs of all inserted effects in the bin would pop up or be hidden... this could however be a massive potential for a resource spike/crash... but I digress).
 
So I've got a track or bunch of tracks I need to tweak FX on. I simply drag the FX GUIs into the dock. Then I just have to press D and navigate to the correct tab to tweak what I need to. If it is a larger GUI than is easily accommodated by the dock then I just drag on that FX's tab at the bottom of the dock which will undock it and now it is in its own resizeable window. Once I am done I drag it back into the dock for storage until I need it again.
 
The problem with this is that if you have multiple instances of the same effect on different tracks then  you have to pay attention to which one you are tweaking. This is why I generally close the GUIs of FX I am not spending a ton of time messing with. Then if I need to access it again it is a simple matter of double clicking on the FX bin entry on the Console strip or in the Track Pane to pop it open again (if I want them all FX on a track open I just double click on them all and there they are and then they can be dragged into the dock for easy access... doesn't take a lot of time).
 
In the dock there is a priority of tabs so if you drag something into the dock it will end up at the end of the tab list. So if you open the GUIs of all the FX on one track and drag them into the dock sequentially then do the same thing for another track you can easily navigate to the set of FX for each track by shuttling through the tabs in the dock (ie: Track 1: FX 1, 2, 3 will be in order... move over a bit and Track 2: FX 1, 2, 3 will be in order).
 
So yeah... spending some time getting a workflow together with the dock is worthwhile.
 
HOWEVER... another option is FX chains which I believe can have all the GUIs contained within the chain pop up at once. So you could put in the effects you need, create an FX chain in the bin (which will put all the FX into a single entry in the FX bin) then I THINK there is a way to just pop it open so all GUIs are available... but I am not sure. It is something to look into anyway and sorry I am muddled on the process (I should be using the buggers more but I've been doing other stuff).
 
BUT the reason I really wanted to bring up FX Chains is you can create ProChannel FX Chain modules and assign the most used controls to knobs on the module. So if you know you are going to mostly be tweaking the Gain, Treble and Bass on an amp sim and the Threshold and Attack on a compressor and the Wet/Dry on a reverb then you could create those controls on the Prochannel FX Chain module and have it all easily accessible by pressing I on your keyboard on a track by track basis. Then from there (because there is unfortunately a limited number of controls that can be assigned to such modules) if you need to get at unassigned controls it is very easy to open up the module and get at the GUIs of the FX being controlled by that FX Chain (which of course can also be saved as a Preset so you can revert back if you want or load the chain into other projects).
 
The other benefit of this Prochannel FX Chain method is it looses (not loses) the FX from the restrictions of the actual FX Bin. This means you can put it anywhere on the Prochannel to be effected by other modules as needed as opposed to the strict "Pre/Post" nature of the actual FX bin.
 
Now the other thing that should be noted is that the included Prochannel modules (such as the QuadCurve, compressors and other gack) should be tried first before tossing things into the FX bin. It just makes things a heck of a lot easier to mix when all you need to do is press I (and if needed navigate to the Prochannel tab or add the PC modifier) and make your tweaks as opposed to dealing with a ton of GUIs. Most of the PC stuff is good. Really good and many of us don't even bother with FX bin stuff unless it is really necessary.
 
Which of course an Amp Sim IS necessary to use the FX Bin or and FX Chain module BUT if you get comfortable with the FX that come in the PC and know how to use them then all of a sudden the ONLY thing in that Prochannel that requires the FX Bin or an FX Chain module is the amp sim which means you can dedicate more buttons to it in an FX Chain PC module (as opposed to having a crapload of other stuff) or it means you can only have the amp sims GUI in the dock or floating or a quick double click away.
 
That is the main idea of the Prochannel. Ease of use with quality effects so you really don't even need to use the FX bin except for very specific applications.
 
Anyway... that may be just blathering but that's how I work these days instead of screwing around with a ton of unnecessary VST windows. I just select the track, press I and 95% or what I need is already there.
 
Cheers.

tyroneshuz1
It did not work the first time, the key didn't bind, though I thought it did. I just went in and did it again, set to 5% opacity, I may up it because it's nice to know I've done it, and there's no other way to undo it (perhaps un-minimizing a window at the bottom?). 
 
Was fooling with screensets too, nice to just BAM your way to the console view. But mostly I think the X-ray is he answer just fizz out the fx/plugins then fizz 'em back in, still maintaining your track and console views in some capacity.

Just press D. The console is always there. You just might have to click a tab but it is always on the far left (unless you remove it for whatever reason but there really is no reason to do that IMO).
 
BTW... screensets are cool but they can be a little buggy/weird/confusing. I'm not a huge fan but I haven't really delved into them because I've always found easier ways to deal with things. I prefer to micro manage as I work as opposed to custom screens though because if I set up screensets I know they would never be QUITE what I want at the time and it is far more simple (to me) to just make the changes needed to the current view. I am however pretty quick with shortcuts and know where everything lives in the various menus. Pretty much everything I need is only a couple clicks and/or jabs at the keyboard away. That's what I like about Sonar. Lots of diffent ways to get at stuff once you know the logic behind it.
 
Cheers.
 

Been asking for a "show desktop" function since Sonar 1.
 
Seems totally obvious.

I don't know because I don't use screensets (yet) but wouldn't setting Screenset 1 to be a view of the bare bones project then locking it be pretty much the same as "Show (Sonar) Desktop"?
 
Like even if you started opening things all over the place and moving things around you could just press 1 and get back to a clean screen?
 
That obviously wouldn't be able to restore all the other mayhem though but being diligent about toggling between screenset 1 and 2 could perform the same function.
 
ie: Screenset 1 = Barebones (locked) Screenset 2 = Mayhem (unlocked)
 
Then if you want to open GUIs or Inspectors or whatever Screenset 2 becomes the playground that progresses while you work and if you want to just look at the project or do some Console View mixing or whatever that you don't want to look at again you do it in Screenset 1. Just a matter of toggling at that point.
 
Again... I don't know because I haven't tried this. I also haven't read that section of the manual for a long time but IIRC that should, in theory, work.