I was intrigued by the recent discussion about using patch points to have a single clean guitar recording feed various simulation plugins on different tracks, keeping them all in one folder, then hitting record (in real time) when the time comes to commit to various presets in the plugins.  So I set everything up to give it a try, and the tracks all set up fine, and my thought was to record all the tracks at the same time (clean), and then "freeze" the plugin tracks when I found a sound I like.  This question concerns my attempt to record to all of the tracks at the same time clean.
 
When I did that, wave forms showed normally as I was recording but when I stopped recording the "clean" track and all the patch point/aux tracks became grey and I could not do anything with them.  Double clicking did nothing also.  Interestingly when I highlighted them and pressed "delete" they (and the wave forms) all become colorful again for a moment and then the tracks were empty.
 
There may well be a reason Sonar treats tracks this way so I'm curious what's behind the thinking.  Afterward I did record just the clean track and the froze individual plugin tracks to get the sound I want, but there is apparently a routing issue/idea that I'm curious about.
 
Thanks,
 
Steve

What sound were you going for just out of curiosity?

When clips appear grey, it is usually because the track edit filter is set to something other than "clips".

Base 57
When clips appear grey, it is usually because the track edit filter is set to something other than "clips".

Ah, I hadn't thought of that.  The "downside" to such a feature-rich program.  
 

What sound were you going for just out of curiosity?

Nothing thought-out in advance, I wanted to try mixing and matching various presets in, e.g,, EZMix, TH3, that kind of thing.  I had read about trying that out with a single clean input and thought it could prove interesting.

Base 57
When clips appear grey, it is usually because the track edit filter is set to something other than "clips".

Here's an update because it turns out your answer may not be the solution (but I'm leaving the door open that I've missed something ).
 
I set up a folder, added the track for the clean input, created the patch point, and then created three new tracks with the patch point at the input, each of the 3 with a different amp simulation plugin.  I then recorded the clean signal ONLY on the 3 plugin tracks, and when finished a proper waveform was there (in color).  I can edit it, etc.  
 
Control+Z to go back and then armed the clean input track along with the 3 plugins, and during recording colored waveform showed, but when I finished all were grey.  And "clips" was the focus of all four Filter buttons.  Odd.
 
Again, there may well be a logical reason for this but darned if I can figure it out.   

I've been following your recipe but I can't duplicate your results. I get normal clips. Now the only amp sim I have is TH3. Maybe a different sim could lead to your issue but I don't know how. However I did load the .08 early release last night so maybe that makes a difference?
 
I wish I could be more help. Good luck.