If you cut part of the material for a project, you could potentially end up damaging the barcode and making it unreadable. For something that is going to be used as an automated identification feature, redundancy is key.
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You bring up an interesting point! It seems one way to solve this would be to scatter barcodes (or QR codes) all over the protective covering in a very discrete way, like using yellow ink–just visible enough for the camera to see but barely visible to the eye. Using a highly chromatic color like that, the QR codes could be removed from camera images in software (think green screen techniques), so as not to interfere with drawings that might be used for cutting or engraving.
(Fun fact: printing barely noticeable yellow patterns is one way that law enforcement tracks down money counterfeiters! http://seeingyellow.com/)
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I’m hoping that the settings come pre-saved regardless of if you even had their material from the start to be a jumping off point for testing non-Proofgrade materials.
As soon as the Proofgrade materials hit the community the settings will spread fast. Might be presaved but not that big of a deal. The Glowforge S/W will allow us to enter and save settings.
That is an awesome idea! I didn’t know about the barely visible yellow! I had assumed having QR codes scattered over the covering would mess with the trace functionality, but the yellow may be the perfect solution.
I can’t remember or confirm the information but the community got the impression way back that the plan was to have “invisible” barcodes or QR codes. A frequency that the camera can see but we can’t. The information is not from something Dan has said in the forum but may have come from one of the videos. Can’t guarantee we didn’t assume it. One of my replies from January:
If that’s the case then I may end up just cutting out the barcode (or qr… Depending on what they use) and keeping that safe for the day GF to scan whenever I use that material. (or write down the settings.)
Under “Lighting” on the tech specs page it says, “Near-UV illumination under the laser head for invisible QR and barcode detection.”
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Well, I completely missed that.
Wow! I never forget stuff like that. Gonna go get an MRI. Thanks.
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That’s what I often do with my food for tracking with apps that have barcode scanning. It’s not a perfect solution, but lets me be lazy and not have to sift through the saved foods.
If it’s any consolation, I couldn’t remember where I read it and only the power of Google was able to track it down through the elegant search of “glowforge.com invisible” 
From what I understand, Proofgrade materials will be covered with an adhesive layer. Maybe the barcode is on adhesive layer (that peels off) and not the product itself?
This is the way I read it.
I think that will definitely be the case. My understanding from the tech specs was that it would be an invisible QR or barcode on the adhesive layer. Of course, if it is invisible and only one barcode exits per piece of material, it would get much harder to cut around it to preserve it, I imagine.
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That’s why I was thinking you would slap the material down in the machine, read the invisible code, and save the results to the cloud as one of your saved settings, just call it the name of the material or write some name in pencil on the adhesive sheet. Make sense?
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That was my initial assumption as well, then everyone in here started talking about wanting multiple barcodes so that it would just pull everything up automatically even for smaller sections. I personally will have no problem with selecting the material manually after the first cut, though I also gladly accept any improvements which allow for additional laziness. 
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I will probably still buy my Baltic birch for trial cuts and testing designs, but seriously considering the proof grade for all of my final cuts. Will be nice to KNOW its going to cut well and not waste time with a flub up
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@dan Are you going to be offering a cheap MDF type material as well? Something that we can use for prototyping before we use are nice stuff?
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Good idea!
Hopper fodder.