This code is not exhaustively tested, but it should give you enough ideas:

model = Sketchup.active_model model.start_operation('Unglue', true) insts = model.selection.grep(Sketchup;;ComponentInstance) insts.each{|inst| inst.glued_to= nil } model.commit_operation

One step undo-able...
It un-glues all selected component-instances.

There is no way to force a statusbar text to stick around. It's normally set by the active tool, but also by menu and toolbar items.

Do you have a sample snippet that demonstrate the issue?

Look into TIG's COORDTAG.rb tool. Set to some geo-location, you also get the co-ords of each tree, and his latest update to the file allows sequential labeling/numbering as well.

http://sketchucation.com/resources/pluginstore?pln=coordstexttagtoolfromdatum