Just make the parseable setting text the same color as the paths to which they apply. This is so simple to me, I really question who they have designing their UI and features.
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Something like so:
With good parsing and defaults you could make the settings line really robust: easy to use and error-resistant. Take speed, for example: “600 s” and “600 speed” and “speed 600” could all be supported. Regex is a heck of a thing. Just look for a block of text that starts with “GFSET:” and go nuts parsing the body after that. Throw a warning that tells you what text block didn’t parse correctly and let the user decide what to do about it.
I will throw things if they do this and support “zooms” and “pews”. That needs to go. 
INB4: No, I don’t have an answer to support every format. And also no I don’t care. Who says that all features have to be supported in all file types? Make it work with SVG and maybe PDF (probably a bit tougher) and move on. SVG is the de facto standard, everything else is a nice to have.
INB4: No, I don’t have an answer for your amazon fyre e ink tablet in dark mode that you use exclusively with your GF, we’re talking about supporting the bulk of users who aren’t using weird form factors.
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No thanks!
Blue in a CMYK profile is not the same as blue in an RGB profile… everyone uses different software, nothing is standardized outside the Glowforge UI, how do you expect for that to remain constant and applicable over the life span of a machine or changes in material?
Because they are entirely consistent numbers inside your SVG, PDF or DXF file.
Exactly, that’s why I say match the text to the paths. You can use whatever colors you want that way. Again, this seems like a no-brainer to me, so it is probably an indication that I don’t know the full scope of the challenge. Everything looks easy if you’re dumb enough… and boy let me tell you I am as dumb as any of you 
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This ^^^^
Which is exactly what save design does, but then screws it up completely with classes inside the SVG
As a bonus, might as well override the auto layout by hexadecimal and make it lay out the operations according to the parsed order.
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Simple: Default by colors unless orders are assigned to all ops.
“GFSET: 600 s, 80p, 1x, 340lpi, autofocus, 1st”
“GFSET: 600 s, 80p, 1x, 340lpi, autofocus, 2nd”
Support the following kinds of formats… “order 1”, “ord 1”, “1st”, “first”, etc etc
That’s what I meant by sensible defaults and parsing. If you don’t specify a focus height, it is considered auto. If you don’t specify an order, then it goes by hex codes, and so forth. Someone whose job it is to figure this stuff out can sit down and come up with a much better and thorough set of guidelines. If Glowforge wants to pay me a fair amount of money, I’ll do it for them, but as of now they don’t so I won’t 
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if your software can’t support RGB colors, it wouldn’t be able to take advantage of this. i mean, that’s a pretty basic set point. even powerpoint can do that.
and I would suggest that there was one color model and one color model only. and that RGB is the defacto standard for more software (pro software can do almost anything and most SW can do RGB) as well as for most major laser cutter brands, so RGB would make the most sense.
would it mean some people would have to edit their files going forward? sure. but no matter what they do if they implemented it, people are going to have to adjust. pick the most common standard.
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Fast engrave on butternut
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They do have the data, and they chose to do it this way - which would indicate that your presumption is incorrect.
It’s great to ask for a feature - they love requests! Just don’t make sweeping “all/most” statements because you’re just asking for folks to contradict you. (Yes, I’m one another one who uses the same designs on multiple materials and I’d much rather have a list of 20 names, then to have to distinguish between colours that are closer and closer in shade because there are SO MANY options!)
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