Its all good man.
We all have different ways of working. that's what makes us unique.
 
I used to needle things to death with clip gain automation.
Now I just make box selections and then use a compressors input control and call it a day.
I don't even use Clip gain automation as much as I did in the old days when some plug ins didn't even have an input control.
The only way to limit what hit the compressor was by manipulating clip gain.
Now a day, unless its more than 7-10db, I leave it be. A compressor can tame the spikes (in my world anyway )
 

Hey guys, thanks for being patient.  Thanks for the YT video timidi.  I had another look at the clip in question, and I tried your methods, which actually did great at creating a brand new clip gain envelope, as opposed to activating the one that already existed. So I then began to realize that the existing envelope was actually a gradual "fade in" envelope on that clip, not a clip gain envelope, similar but not the same I guess. (been a long time since I worked on this old project, guess I forgot what I had done so long ago, sorry to mislead you). 
 
Either way I still couldn't get that existing fade-in envelope to activate so that I could edit it, it just remains there as a sort of "greyed out" or "thin white" line representing the fade in. You would think all I'd have to do is click on it using the smart tool and it will become active and ready to be edited, but it's just dead for some reason. Tried hovering the smart tool equipped mouse all over it and near the nodes at each end, but nothing happened.
 
I don't think it will help, but I did make a screen grab, but can't seem to upload the JPEG directly from my PC to this post. I can't just upload a JPEG here anymore??...It seems I need a URL link, which I don't have, and I got rid of Photobucket, (too buggy and annoying spam mail). Anyone have a tip on how to just upload a picture the direct way so that it shows here in the post? Thanks.
 
Btw Chuck, I never have used "lanes" in my projects, so although I've seen them before in Reason, and I understand the concept, I am totally in the dark about how to create lanes and use them in Platinum. I had a long stretch between upgrades, I literally went from 8.5.3 straight to Platinum only a few months ago. So I totally skipped over X1,2 &3,  I missed quite a few upgrades, new features, etc...and likely missed valuable information along the way. So some features, like lanes, are commonplace to most, but still new to me. Also, a lot of what I do is just recording straight audio and basic editing, FX, and mastering. I do pretty well for what I need, but I don't have a ton of technical knowledge like that of a studio engineer. I keep things simple, the technical stuff can bog me down, although I'm certainly not timid about learning new things in Sonar when I need to accomplish something specific. 
 
In the meantime, I'm gonna do some research to see if I can find out why I can't activate this fade envelope. Once I find the answer, I'm sure it will be the same solution to activate any existing clip envelope from a Sonar 8.5.3 project, ....(hopefully!)
 
 

This might be way off, but the first time after I switched from the older versions to the new with the Take lanes I was puzzled by the same thing. There was a volume envelope line but clicking away on it did nothing. It took me a bit to find the Volume envelope lane where this was possible.. 
It seems the envelope line is superimposed on the main track at first , but for some reason it then is only available for editing as a lane.  

Hey Cactus, I've never used envelope lanes, any chance you could tell me how to find the envelope lane for that track and open it to view it? Maybe if I can open that up I'll find the old existing envelope and be able to finally edit it. Thanks, much appreciated.

Sorry I'm away from home so don't have Sonar to take a screenshot, but there's Icons denoting the lanes in the very bottom left of track inspector. right above the number of the track below it.  

Ok thanks Cactus, got it. That gives me a brand new volume envelope to work with, as Chuck has shown in his first post.  Looks like track lanes aren't used for fade envelopes. In the track lane drop down all I see is Volume, Automated Mute, and Pan. No Fade envelope option.
 
After some further digging in the manual I found the solution to be simple as far as moving the position of the Fade, getting rid of the Fade altogether, or changing the curve type of the Fade. 
 
To change an existing fade:
1. Move your cursor over the beginning of a fade-out or the end of a fade-in, until your cursor looks like this: (triangle with L&R arrows above it)
2. Right-click to and select the desired fade type from the menu that appears.
 
However, I don't see any options for adding nodes to a Fade, though I don't remember if that was even possible in 8.5.3 either, I think not. So at least for now my problem is solved for the Fade-In editing, I'll have to find a project that has an old existing volume envelope to try editing, I'll post results here. Thanks to everyone who posted here to lend a hand, I appreciate everyone on this forum, they always come through every time. Thank you!
 
MM

Which tool are you using trying to edit the fade ?
 

See my edited post above Chuck.  Found the solution in the Reference Guide, at least for the fade edit. I'm sure the other envelopes will show available in the automation lanes, though I haven't tried it yet, I will be soon. Thanks for all your help bud.

If you want to create a clip gain envelope and adjust it one step, try Ctrl+dragging downward while hovering over the clip - that should do it.   To edit after the fact you'll need to make sure the Edit Filter is set to adjust Clip Gain envelopes first, and then simply clicking on the line should add a node and ctrl+click should allow you to drag the line itself (similar to the Ctrl+Drag above).