Hi Caridad,
thanks for the suggestion, but it didn't do what I expected. Here's what I did as a test:
1. I exported the zip file as you described.
2. I extracted the settings.xml file
3. I then cut one whole <group> and </group> and moved it lower so it was right above </groups>
4. I saved the file
5. I imported
6. I selected bulk overwrite if group exists
I expected the group I moved in Step 3 would appear lower on my custom post type. However, it's still in the same position. It also didn't appear to me in looking at the XML file that my groups were in the same order as I view them.
Where did I go wrong?