Conforming

Project Settings

Open a new project and go to Files > Project Settings... or the settings icon on the bottom left of the user interface. Under Master Settings set your main timeline resolution and framerate.

Footage Import

Create a bin in your project called Footage and import all the media of your shoot in that bin. Create further bins for organisation if needed. You can drag and drop from Finder/Explorer or go through the media page.

Timeline Import

To import the XML/AAF go to Files > Import > Timeline... and select the file you want to import.

Select the following settings:

After that you will be prompted to select a bin where Resolve should look for the footage. Select the footage bin you created earlier.

Usually, this should relink all the files.

Reference import

To import your offline reference file, locate it in the Media Storage panel of the media page. Right click it and select Add as Offline Reference Clip.

Now right click your timeline in the media pool and select Timelines > Link Offline Reference Clip and select the corresponding Clip from the list.

Now it can be accessed on the edit page by right clicking in the preview window by rightclicking there and selecting the blending mode. There are different kinds of wipes and blending modes like Difference or Opacity Mix.

Checking

After the reference clip is linked to the timeline it comes to checking wether all clips have relinked properly and scalings are accurate.

In my opinion, the difference blend mode for the reference is the most effective to spot if it matches or not. The edges very visible when it does not match.

As an example, here is a difference in scaling between the raw shot on the timeline and the reference:

And this is what a perfect match looks like: