Or is there some other reason why switching screensets often crashes my X3? (Seems to happen more often than when I 
was on X2 - when my PC had only 4GB btw.)
Maybe some specific plug-in is causing the crash?
 
All my projects are created using my own project template (which I (re-)created in X3d) that contains:
 

• 30 MIDI tracks, 22 synth tracks, 4 audio tracks, and 10 track folders
• 6 soft synths - SSD4EX, EZDrummer, Kontakt 5 Player, Kontakt 4 Full (x2), Nexus 2, and M1
• 5 effects - Guitar Rig 5 (x2), MTuner (x2), EAReverb (x2), Valhalla Room, MDE-X (x2)

 
The crash doesn't bring up the fault report dialog so I can't report to CW. And after Sonar is closed, I have to terminate SONARX3.exe using Task Manager, and wait for some minutes before Sonar becomes restartable.
 
The crash on screenset change doesn't occur when I use the default Normal project template with only several
tracks and a few soft synths.
 
Do you think this is my system issue or does the minimum RAM requirement of 2GB mean "You can still use X3
without using screensets"? 
 
 
 
(edit: forgot to include some important info:)

• SSD4 EX is empty (no drum kit loaded)
• Kontakt 5 has just one instrument in it (a 33MB RAM temporary drum kit that will be replaced by a huge, NI drum library at some point)
• 1st instance of Kontakt 4 contains only 4 instruments (about 127MB RAM in total)
• 2nd instance of K4 contains 12 instruments (but only about 140MB RAM in total)
• M1 is very CPU/memory-friendly
• The ASIO buffer setting I usually use is 128 samples (Input Latency: 4.0 msec, Output Latency: 8.1 msec)
• Project's sampling rate and bit depth are 44.1kHz/24bit

 
Thanks

 
All other things aside, your system is probably a bit weak.
 
You're loading quite a bit of stuff on a 5-year-old laptop.
 
My 4-year-old i5 laptop isn't crazy about a single instance of z3ta2, let alone 30 tracks of a bunch of different synths.
 
I'd say your CPU (and it being in a laptop) is getting in the way of any amount of memory you might have.
 

Have you considered a more tactical approach and using track templates instead, and inserting them "as needed."

I would agree with mettelus. Try just and see if it helps make the situation better.

Thanks all. I forgot to include some important info in the OP:
 

• SSD4 EX is empty (no drum kit loaded)
• Kontakt 5 has just one instrument in it (a 33MB RAM temporary drum kit that will be replaced by a huge, NI drum library at some point)
• 1st instance of Kontakt 4 contains only 4 instruments (about 127MB RAM in total)
• 2nd instance of K4 contains 12 instruments (but only about 140MB RAM in total)
• M1 is very CPU/memory-friendly
• The ASIO buffer setting I usually use is 128 samples (Input Latency: 4.0 msec, Output Latency: 8.1 msec)
• Project's sampling rate and bit depth are 44.1kHz/24bit

Still, my system is probably a bit weak as Paul suggested. I think Cakewalk should list not only minimum system requirements but also recommended system requirements in the product page.
 
As for track templates, I've never really considered using them. It's maybe because I use multi-timbral/multi-out synths a lot and adding instruments "as needed" inside Kontakt or M1 is not so easy (and I don’t want to use several instances of these multi-timbral synths having just one instrument each). Also, the 30 MIDI tracks consist of varieties of instruments I use most often, which is convenient because I can just open the project template and start composing immediately, whether the part I want to record is acoustic piano or electric piano or synth bass or electric bass or something else, because they are already there ready to be played. And my MIDI keyboard controller’s 8 sliders are already assigned to each group of instruments, so if I want to adjust the volume of a particular group of instruments, I just tweak a corresponding slider (1st slider for drums, 2nd slider for basses, etc.)
 
Anyway, I’ll consider if I can reduce the number of synths/effects, or come up with a workflow that doesn’t need to use screensets. I think screensets are Karl’s favorite feature in the X series, but the feature has never been a good friend to me (after switching screensets, track heights are often not the same as those that were saved (and locked) with the screenset).

I see your point.

Is your graphic driver up to date? Is it integrated?

Track templates are easiest to create if you already have a project to save them from. They save send/bus routing, as well as effects (and presets) and instrument settings. By saving them from a full-blown project, they will interlace as things are added. To save multiple tracks, they can simply be put in a folder and save the folder itself as the "track template" which works for multi-timbral/multi-out synths (that is what the AD track template that was posted is).
 
I actually did "Track Templates" as a project for this online course I am doing. We were limited to a recommended 5 minutes, so I edited a lot of the "dead space" which makes my fast talking even worse. The point I was trying to make above starts at the 3:30 mark - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QCJ5rYytwuw
 

 
Ironically, I was asked if other DAWs even have this feature, and my response was "No clue, I only use SONAR."
 

Grem
I see your point.
Is your graphic driver up to date? Is it integrated?

 
I think it's up to date. The driver update button and automatic search told me it's the latest driver. I'm no pc expert so I may be missing something, though. How do I know if it's "integrated"? 
 

mettelus
Track templates are easiest to create if you already have a project to save them from. They save send/bus routing, as well as effects (and presets) and instrument settings. By saving them from a full-blown project, they will interlace as things are added. To save multiple tracks, they can simply be put in a folder and save the folder itself as the "track template" which works for multi-timbral/multi-out synths (that is what the AD track template that was posted is).

I actually did "Track Templates" as a project for this online course I am doing. We were limited to a recommended 5 minutes, so I edited a lot of the "dead space" which makes my fast talking even worse. The point I was trying to make above starts at the 3:30 mark - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QCJ5rYytwuw

Ironically, I was asked if other DAWs even have this feature, and my response was "No clue, I only use SONAR."

 
Thanks for the video. Track templates are one of the most requested features in the Studio One FR forum (yes, I'm a dual DAW user, although I'm not using S1 very often these days because X3 is so good...). I'm now seriously considering using track templates because you've just reminded me that not all daws have the feature, and also because my project template started crashing Sonar when I exit the template . Or maybe I should archive more tracks......or disable effects until I actually need to use them.....
 
 

I had to give up on screensets in X3.  I'm used to instantaneous, I can't stand the delay when switching between them.  In 8.3 it was instantaneous for me, why is it so slow now?  It feels like the equivalent of closing the file and reopening it.  Maybe not quite that slow but close.  My patience just ran out I finally abandoned them completely and set the keyboard shortcuts to something else so I wasn't switching on accident.  And I am running on a brand spankin' new maxed-out computer.  This is not helpful to you, I just thought I'd throw it in there.  Maybe Sonar could get this feature back to where it used to be...?  Or is it just me...?

FWIW, screensets were introduced in X1, so in 8.3 it would have been layouts - similar function but not quite the same and based on different technology.
 
The most common reason for unusually slow Screen Set switching has been having a floppy drive in some fashion.  You don't actually need to have a physical drive installed, most don't, but having it in the BIOS will still cause SONAR to ping that location when switching Screen Sets... and that slows things down.