If anyone is wondering if this has been resolved, where attempting to open a Waves plug-in in Sonar X3b would crash Sonar. For me, it's not nearly as often as previous versions, but I did experience two Waves/Sonar crashes over the weekend. One of them I reported in a Crash Report. This is with Waves9.2r13 and Sonar X3b. No other drivers/hardware/software/OS or patch levels have changed for 6 months or more. Could a video card/driver, motherboard, or CPU cause this? Thanks!

Has anyone who has extensive, and I mean vast extensive heavy use of Sonar/Waves built a system that performs really well, but has had absolutely zero crashes between these two brand products? Would you mind sharing your Specs to help me identify maybe a piece of hardware I might change? I really looking for a solid build of hardware/software that will rival anything Cakewalk uses to test Sonar with. I feel if I can do that, at least, I can better eliminate that from being in question when it comes to issues I've been having with X3b.

I get the odd crash with Waves too. I am aware of the "do-not-mixVST2/3" thing and it's definitely not that. I use a custom plugin layout and the VST2 versions are not even in there. It was a new project with just one instance of an Addictive Keys pack and one track with about three vocal takes, no other plugins loaded yet as I was just getting down an idea. I tried loading an RVox mono in the fx bin on the vocal track and Sonar instantly gave a white screen crash. I filed the problem report and lost my vocal takes (not essential, but would hate to have that happen during anything important).

Win7 Ultimate 64, all latest updates and drivers installed
I7 3770
8GB RAM
Running from SSD

Latest Waves RennMax and Sonar X3b

I'm using just the VST2 Waves plug-ins. By default I let Sonar X3 automatically replace them with VST3 and all the settings for each Waves plug-in were gone. They were all defaulted. So, I reverted back to the VST2's until I finish this recording. Maybe I need to manually convert all my Waves plug-ins over to VST3. I don't like the idea of losing more time to keep from embarrassing myself, but it gets old hearing a DAW-savvy band tell me over and over I should be using ProTools.

My history with WAVES is short - it's only 2 months since I moved from mostly IK & Sonar stock plugs to a relatively large number of WAVES and FabFilter plugs.
 
So far I can't complain (despite heavy use); I had some issues after installing X3b (mixing VST2/VST3, some 32 bit zombies coming to life, ...) but with this sorted out, it seems to be back at where it was with X2a - which means not a single crash that can be attributed to WAVES. Fingers crossed it stays like that ...
 
Yet, I have come to believe that not all WAVES plugs are equal, although they reside in the same shell - so pls share more info on which particular plugs were involved and I keep an eye on them - I like to be cautious
 

brconflict
By default I let Sonar X3 automatically replace them with VST3 and all the settings for each Waves plug-in were gone. They were all defaulted.

That's interesting. I just finished 2 mixes that I had started in X2a. None had lost any settings, no plug was being defaulted. I picked up in X3b where I had stopped in X2a ... Curious what Cake will say how that can happen. I'm sure they put a ton of work into ensuring that this shouldn't happen as it scares users away.

It's random for me. I use the SSL4K EQ in Waves a lot. I like the easy interface, and the sound. The Sonar SSL-type EQ is close, but there's something the Waves version has I haven't gotten from the Sonar version. I also use the NLS Summer Mike Hedges channel 2 and Spike's SSL channel 29 a lot. I use the Kramer Tape for it's awesome Flux Exciter-type thing, and I'm using the IR-1 Full, L1 Limiter, CLA Signature Drums/Bass, and CLA76-Black/Blue Compressors. Those are mostly what I stick with.  There's something I get from each of these unmatched, and not that I couldn't use the same types of things in Sonar, I personally find the Waves derivatives easier to see and use or more pleasing to hear in most cases. The just have a certain musicality I respond to. 

Brian the lost setting issue was fixed in X3B so that wont happen anymore. My hunch about your crash is that there was still a small but possible loophole where you could get a vst2 and vst3 to happen. Also as we found recently this could also occur if you used a plugin layout since those did not get migrated to VST3.
I've fixed quite a few corner cases for the next update so hopefully it will be more bulletproof in this regard. 
Regarding cconversion there should be no need to manually convert - the automatic migration should transfer all your settings properly as of X3B and its even more robust in the next update.