Bert,

Object manager is ordered from top to bottom meaning that the object on top of the list is the top object in your drawing. If you press the alt button when clicking an object you can dig down through that pile of objects. It is generally a good practice to have tracings on different layers than the image that you are tracing.

If I understand what is happening, I would click edit, select all objects then ungroup or break apart that selection. Then in object manager, create a new layer, move the jpeg to the new layer and click the pencil and the print icons to lock and prevent that layer from exporting. Highlight the other layer, then you can double click the select arrow to select all objects and then click combine or weld (weld might work better for laser as it may join all the nodes). Then export as needed, make sure that the selection settings are correct.