mudgel
There are many of us here that use Kontakt. It's a bread and butter Virtual instrument that forms the basis of much music created in project studios. This forum and others would be awash with threads about problems if half of what you say was true in respect to Sonars ability to host Kontakt.
For your own good stop explaining and start listening. You've been given much good advice from people who clearly now how to use Kontakt while you dont.
Sorry if I'm being blunt but the problem is you not the Software.

+1

mudgel
There are many of us here that use Kontakt. It's a bread and butter Virtual instrument that forms the basis of much music created in project studios. This forum and others would be awash with threads about problems if half of what you say was true in respect to Sonars ability to host Kontakt.
For your own good stop explaining and start listening. You've been given much good advice from people who clearly now how to use Kontakt while you dont.
Sorry if I'm being blunt but the problem is you not the Software.

What you say makes a lot of sense and the fact that many use Kontakt in Sonar has not escaped me.  However, your post misrepresents several facts badly:
 
1)  I have followed every piece of advice that has been given to me and none of them have worked.
2)  Those offering advice haven't understood the problem which caused me to write more verbose explanations.  
3)  I don't want the configurations that people have suggested and I can't work in that way.  I select what I need as I create and I don't want anything preselected.
4)  The advice I have been given so far have been work-arounds for known issues.
5)  I have already established that I can have a successful 6 instrument Kontakt instance as long as there is no midi data in the tracks.  This proves that my routing is good and I did hope it would inspire greater minds with the solution.  If this is not due to a resources setting then I must conclude that my installation is corrupt.
 
Therefore as soon as my bandwidth is reset I will be downloading a new installation and installing it with the hope that the problems that have plagued only me will be resolved.  I'd like to add that setting up Avid's Sibelius with Kontakt 5 was a breeze and worked first time without any problems.

Those are 5 of the best excuses I have ever seen

As a Sonar veteran and an "audio head" I am on the cusp of purchasing Kontakt, getting into VIs, sampling and anything more than basic MIDI for the first time. I am trying hard to be reassured by this thread...

djwolf
 
No, possibly, not at all.  All my tracks are generating sound beautifully as long as there are no more than 6 of them and none of them have any midi data in the midi tracks.  Apparently, notes are the problem.
 

If I understand this correctly, your tracks are generating sound as long as there is no MIDI information.
What exactly is generating this sound?  Without MIDI to tell the synth what to play, there shouldn't be any sound.

Marshall
As a Sonar veteran and an "audio head" I am on the cusp of purchasing Kontakt, getting into VIs, sampling and anything more than basic MIDI for the first time. I am trying hard to be reassured by this thread...

Marshall,
I've been using Kontakt for a few years, and found it to be very straightforward.  Mostly the Vintage Organs, Session Horns, and Session Horns Pro.
Load the synth, route the Sonar MIDI track into the correct Kontakt channel, route the Kontakt output channel to the correct Sonar Audio Track.  Feed in the info, Kontakt processes it, feed the sound back into Sonar.
To me, it's a great introduction for someone getting into "anything more than basic MIDI."

djwolf
3)  I don't want the configurations that people have suggested and I can't work in that way.  I select what I need as I create and I don't want anything preselected.

So it seems you're intentionally doing it the slowest possible way and allowing for the possibility of mistakes in your in/out configuration.

This comment below from my first post makes Kontakt pre configured to work flawlessly with Sonar.
1) See this post for configuring Kontakt outputs:
http://forum.cakewalk.com/FindPost/3619624
That post, if you set things up that way, will save you a lot of headaches.

djwolf
 Apparently, notes are the problem.

Notes that are 10 bars long each are not a good "initial" test.
Make them 1 beat long.
This will force you to be sure you're starting at the beginning of each note.
Midi will not play if you don't start at the beginning of each note "unless" you have "midi chase" enabled.
 

djwolf
My outputs are fine.  I use the "batch functions / Clear output section and create one individual channel for each loaded instrument" function which does the job.
 
As for the error on the instrument panels, technically they aren't connected to Sonar since they haven't been routed through Sonar at this point.  The second I route the first instrument into a Sonar Midi track the error disappears on all instruments.  It's not a problem but it could be a clue to someone with a good understanding of this system.
 

KAV
The list of Kontakt output names is mangled in SONAR's menu if there are more than half a dozen outputs. It's been this way for a long time. The good news is that only the names in the menu are wrong and the actual routings work fine.

No, the names in the menu disappear so they don't work fine and I'm rather shocked by this.  That a professional DAW that has quite a few competitors to deal with would allow such a monumental bug that limits its tracks to 6 instruments wasn't addressed like their HQ was on fire?  But perhaps I'm misunderstanding you, KAV.
 
I say that because maybe you have misunderstood me.  My instrument and track names are Violins 1, Violins 2, Viola, Cello, Basses, and oboes.  Bassoon, Harp, Flute, Trombone and Trumpet will be added when I can work out how.  The naming is done by the batch command I mentioned earlier.  I have to look at the mangled menu because for each instrument I have to choose one of three options: Left (Mono), Right (Mono) and Stereo.  To be clear the menu I am alluding to is the top drop down menu button on an audio track.
 
The other issue is that even if I created a second instance of Kontakt as you suggest, it wouldn't do any good because as soon as I start putting music (with no controllers - note events only) into the tracks my entire system falls apart.
 

This (below) will solve all of your output name problems in Sonar.
They will show as st1 through st16 with nothing else there, once you finish a template.
Anything above and beyond st16 including the aux tracks and the unassigned tracks will then be gone.

Ignoring this because you don't want any pre configured solutions is (in my opinion) shooting yourself in the foot.

1) See this post for configuring Kontakt outputs:
http://forum.cakewalk.com/FindPost/3619624
That post, if you set things up that way, will save you a lot of headaches.
 
 

Also ... it's very important that you make sure that your midi tracks are sending to a specific numbered channel.
If you're testing with 6 tracks make sure thay are consecutively sending to midi channels 1 through 6.