Editing HD Offline
 

I currently able to edit HD in FCP by creating a program stream using a method similar to the the one Paul Mogg mentions in this forum.
It still is a bit sluggish and long to render. It seems like there should be a way to create a stand in for the program stream, do all the editing and then switch the resource as a last step (not a new idea of course offlineRT does the same thing).
For a first step take the program stream and use FCP to export to a format Final Cut more readily handles.
Any ideas what codec I should use? I think is still needs to be 1280x720 but it can be highly compressed, I am not worried about the quality of the footage while I am editing.

I heard good things about the Animation codec. But why not give
several codecs a try and report your findings here? As you say,
qaulity isn't important.