[Charlie Edison]

The problem is that when exporting FCP edls, (assuming cmx3600) the reel numbers are only 8 characters long whilst R3d file names are much longer, therefore conforming issues galore can occur. 
What you need to do is export the edl from FCP with “file names in notes” checked.

Back in resolve make sure reel number support is checked and leave the default /%R/%D (see the manual for more details about that) and most importantly on the settings tab, check “use reel numbers from edl notes” 

Every second day we are conforming FCP edls, as long as the filenames don’t change from camera original, 
Resolve can seamlessly conform R3d edls from FCP

Remember to render your final grade with “use source file name” on the render page and for a little organization use /Volumes/ “%L” / in your render file path, that will place the rendered clips in a folder using the source file name.

[Charlie Edison]

The default version is set after a re-conform, you’ll need to go through and select other versions as required.

[Charlie Edison]

The most efficient way to make a change to all clips is to use a “ripple value”
To change only a few clips in your time line use the clip numbers to define which clips to ripple,
eg. Make the change you want on clip 6, then type \\\”7,14\\\” hit ripple and clips 7-14 will get the change you made to clip 6

The are 4 ripple value modes so read up the manual to master this function. It\\\’s very useful.

[Charlie Edison]

I get what your doing and that makes sense, we also do a lot of long form in a similar method, 1 QT clip that you add using the pre-conform method to split the edits. 
Right now there is no way to retain similar clips from the edl, but what david suggested would work, grouping in A mode sort then back to C mode grading. What your asking for is a feature request that could be useful.
The only problem I see is would be if you have multiple camera angles from any 1 particular source reel that require different grades, an auto grouping method like you mention from edl reel numbers would include all shots from that reel/tape
So then you’d probably have to go through and un-group all the shots that you don’t want linked. The only way to help that would be to have a timecode look ahead to group a range of time within a reel. 
It has merit but I think it has problems too, I like david’s solution. 
Nice one Dave, 

[Charlie Edison]

Hi Patrick

Can you explain in a little more detail about your job and how you’ve set it up?

Cheers

[Charlie Edison]

When you started this job, did you “split and add folders and subfolders based on edl” ?
Or did you just add all the original red R3D media into the media pool?

[Charlie Edison]

Exactly as Sascha says,
Work with smaller clips, for many reasons.. But the slip timecode is there for you to slip the matte under your source clip,
But if you send out a small clip for roto and get back tue same amount of frames, assign the matte to clip then your done, no timecode to worry about.

But yes you can work with a 1 hr clip and add a matte however it does needs to be the same length, you can slip timing with the timecode slip control if need be.
I once subtitled an entire movie this way.

[Charlie Edison]

I wouldn’t bother coverting anything from prorez to dpx for better performance, its not worth the conversion time, but if someone is supplying you with elements or anything additional and they have dpx then grab them.
2 reasons, better uncompressed 10bit rgb and yes less processing.
Resolve has to decode anything other than dpx before it does anything else like color correction and resizing.
But as I said, the extra step of converting to dpx from any other source file format is not worth the time.

[Charlie Edison]

Your matte needs to be the exact same length as the foreground clip or source, don\’t worry about the mattes timecode. Not sure about prorez it should work but where ever possible use dpx frames, it\’s less taxing on CPU and gpu as the internal processing is file based, that\’s one less thing the system needs to process.

[Charlie Edison]

Conform issue;

Until the next release try this, ask your offline editor to remove all transitions and blk, ax, slug edits (you can keep speed changes) then use this edl to split and add media into media pool. Use the same edl in the deck ingest tab “load edl” to check if the media is in the pool!
Once all your media shows up as in the media pool,
Import the original off line edl with translation etc to the conform page, you should be good to go!