I guess a HELLO is in order, being a newbie and all. I'm diving into home recording and as it's been pointed out, the learning curve is pretty steep. Being computer challenged doesn't help either.
I thought a good place to start would be to record a sample guitar track and get Session Drummer going, which I did. The problem arose when I wanted to get Guitar Rig 5 going to get some grit going. Initially when opening GR and trying to get SD to work the inputs and outputs disappeared in the preferences section. No problems when I open the Line 6 Amp sims. In addition, there is no VST listing in the effects bin. Thanks in advance! And yes, I have searched on the web for awhile to find some answers.

With a righteous name like 61LPCUSTOM, how could I not help? 
 
Guitar Rig works in Sonar, I and many others use it all the time. The fact that it doesn't show up as a VST likely means that either it wasn't installed correctly, or it got placed in a folder that Sonar doesn't know to scan.
 
This thread might provide the solution without your having to go any further: http://forum.cakewalk.com...onar-X3e-m3041502.aspx
 
If not, try searching your computer for 5.dll and see if Guitar Rig 5.dll shows up. If so, you can locate the folder where it lives, and then instruct Sonar to scan it with the plug-in manager.
 
As to the learning curve, the first 10% is the hardest. If you can make it past that, you'll find that your knowledge will start to snowball. Welcome aboard!
 
 

So you have the Guitar Rig 5 VST installed (not just the standalone program)?  (http://www.native-instruments.com/en/support/knowledge-base/show/699/how-to-install-ni-applications-on-windows-64-bit-systems/ )
  
Where is the location on the computer it installed the VST? 
 
Make sure that location of the VST is scanned by X3. ( http://www.cakewalk.com/Documentation?product=SONAR%20X3&language=3&help=Mixing.37.html )
 
You can run the GR5 setup again to find the default location if you need to.
 
That sounds like the root of your problem. Let us know...

Thanks for the replies guys. And thanks Anderton for the tip 'o the hat to Les Paul that Les had a fit over. I'm also an ex-puck handler.  Let me do some more digging and looking at the links you've provided.I looked in program files and found Cakewalk Content. In the same page below that in Program files when opened is the Native Instrument folder that has the VST plug in files. And now for some more homework.....and again, mucho thanks!
 

While not an elegant solution, open Cakewalk's plug-in manager and include the folder you found with the VST plug-in files. 

Be sure to run it in standalone first, so it authenticates correctly

lawp
Be sure to run it in standalone first, so it authenticates correctly

Yup... and make sure you scan for the correct version for your install. 32-bit or 64-bit. Personally I think I just included the entire Native Instruments folder in my VST scan list and have access to both if need be.
 
Also when you install GR and when you run it for the first time as standalone instead of just double clicking or right clicking and selecting Open... right click and select "Run As Administrator". Some programs get all weird if you don't choose that option and I think GR5 was one that gave me a hard time about this. It has been a looong time though.
 
Good luck.

And we have lift off! Thanks everyone for your help and suggestions. And Craig, your comment about "elegant solutions" reminded very much of an MIT professor I had for an instructor way back when. It was one of his favorite concepts when discussing mathematics. Fortunately for us both I turned out to be a better guitarist than mathmatician.....

So which suggestion solved the problem?

I uninstalled and re-installed GR making sure the file location was correct: c:/program files/native instruments/VSTPlugins 64bit. I'm not sure why the default location the first time around was selected as a desktop location? Also made sure it was scanned in the VST section. And now for the other 99.8% of the learning curve... Again, many thanks guys.