My song writing/composing work flow often involves winding up Sonar, coming up with a riff on guitar, bass, synth etc. Working out a structure and then writing lyrics etc. I often don't have a title for the song/tune until the later stages of the project. So when I create the project in the first place I give it a date stamp as a title e.g. 20170817. Usually, when I settle on a more descriptive name I will do a save as... with the new name. I then have to dig into my project drive and find the old date stamped project directory and delete it, but that's tricky due to the number of projects in there and it's unsafe as I could potentially get the dates mixed up and delete the wrong project!
 
Is there a better method of changing a project's name with the projects directory and file reflecting the new name? Or should this be a feature request e.g. File > Change project name?

If you fear deleting the wrong project instead of using "Save As" rename the project folder and file using Windows Explorer. You can always perform a "Save As" later to trim the project. Should the wrong project get renamed nothing has been deleted and recovered would not require a restore from backup.

35mm
My song writing/composing work flow often involves winding up Sonar, coming up with a riff on guitar, bass, synth etc. Working out a structure and then writing lyrics etc. I often don't have a title for the song/tune until the later stages of the project. So when I create the project in the first place I give it a date stamp as a title e.g. 20170817. Usually, when I settle on a more descriptive name I will do a save as... with the new name. I then have to dig into my project drive and find the old date stamped project directory and delete it, but that's tricky due to the number of projects in there and it's unsafe as I could potentially get the dates mixed up and delete the wrong project!
 
Is there a better method of changing a project's name with the projects directory and file reflecting the new name? Or should this be a feature request e.g. File > Change project name?

This is a real issue with me. it all has to do with how Sonar saves audio wavs in a project and saving a project then say deleting or changing track audio data in the new project but you are still in the file structure of the original project so if you delete a track in say project copy 2 you also delete the wav file for the original project copy 1
 
I always create a CWB file then open it and save it as a new project before modifying anything in 2nd generation of a project.

scook
If you fear deleting the wrong project instead of using "Save As" rename the project folder and file using Windows Explorer. You can always perform a "Save As" later to trim the project. Should the wrong project get renamed nothing has been deleted and recovered would not require a restore from backup.

I'm pretty sure I tried that before but found that changing the directory name broke the paths for the project. That's why I've been doing it with a save as. It would be nice if the project name could be changed in Sonar so that it can update file paths referenced in the project file and update the recent projects list and keep everything in sync.

First. Before doing anything you should have a back up copy of everything. 
 
I often re name projects. 
Using Save as and renaming a project in place in the same folder uses almost nothing in hard drive storage. 
CWP files are small. 
It just gives you the option of having multiple versions of the same song easily retrieved. 
 
If you save as to a new location and check the copy audio box then there you go. why worry about the old version? Hard drives are huge and if it bothers you just move that folder to a back up drive. I don not ever, ever delete anything I do in Sonar. 

As long as the default per-project audio layout is used, paths stored in the project file are relative to the project location. Otherwise fully qualified names are used.

Cactus Music
First. Before doing anything you should have a back up copy of everything. 
 
I often re name projects. 
Using Save as and renaming a project in place in the same folder uses almost nothing in hard drive storage. 
CWP files are small. 
It just gives you the option of having multiple versions of the same song easily retrieved. 
 
If you save as to a new location and check the copy audio box then there you go. why worry about the old version? Hard drives are huge and if it bothers you just move that folder to a back up drive. I don not ever, ever delete anything I do in Sonar. 

I do have backups, but auto backups will remove stuff that's been removed from the source. I normally do save as for saving versions and like you save them in the same directory with a, b, c etc added to the file name. But when you do a save as can you change the name of the project directory and save into that? I imagine that would fail. I worry about getting rid of the old named version because when I am browsing through projects in various states of complesion, I don't want a whole load of duplicates and duplicate audio taking up space. Apart from backups, I have a single directory for each project with multiple versions of the project in that along with versioning, audio, mixes and everything else related to that project.

scook
As long as the default per-project audio layout is used, paths stored in the project file are relative to the project location. Otherwise fully qualified names are used.

OK thanks for the info I'll give that another go.

35mm
...when I create the project in the first place I give it a date stamp as a title e.g. 20170817...
...but that's tricky due to the number of projects in there and it's unsafe as I could potentially get the dates mixed up and delete the wrong project...

 
I would add a silly random word to end of the timestamp string. This will make it easier to recognise and identify each file.

11Dreams
 
This is a real issue with me. it all has to do with how Sonar saves audio wavs in a project and saving a project then say deleting or changing track audio data in the new project but you are still in the file structure of the original project so if you delete a track in say project copy 2 you also delete the wav file for the original project copy 1
 
I always create a CWB file then open it and save it as a new project before modifying anything in 2nd generation of a project.

I don't think so (?). AFAIK deleting a track never deletes the audio from from the Audio-folder. Or do I misunderstand your message?