I labelled some items with 3D text, but when I turn off a layer, like a wall, the text disappears with it. How can I keep the text from disappearing with that wall layer?
Change it’s layer in the entity info window.
Ah, brilliant. So simple. I made a new layer called text and using the Entity panel, I put all the text there. Thank you so much.
Whoops! Spoke to soon. The text item was changed to the text layer, and I can see that it says that in the entity window, but it still disappears when I switch off the wall layer, as if it is still on that wall layer.
Can you upload a model with this behaviour?
Sure. I can upload the file, but I don’t see a link to do that. (Sorry, I’m new here.)
This one is the upload button:
By any chance, is the text nested inside a Group or Component? If so, the layer visibility of that Group or Component will dominate the visibility of all the nested contents.
Okay, here you are. I have no idea if the text is inside a group, but take a look. Thank you for your help (2.8 MB) When you turn off the wall layer, the text disappears even though it’s all supposed to be on the Text layer.
Indeed, the text is Grouped and associated with the TEXT layer, but its contents are associated with the “Window Wall” layer. This is a classic example of why we advise to keep geometry primitives and nested contents of Groups on layer0 at all times.
Take a look at this revision:
Animal B Sc 98.skp (2.8 MB)
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Thanks so much for fixing that for me, but can you please also explain where and how you fixed it so that I don’t have to bother you again. 
To diagnose the problem I clicked on one of the text instances and saw in Entity Info window that it was a Group on the TEXT layer. I then opened it for edit and clicked on an Edge - it was on the Window Wall layer. So at that point I knew what the problem was. It is easy but tedious to fix by hand - just open each text for edit, select all the contents, and reassign them to layer0 in Entity Info. A faster way is to use a plugin such as TIG’s layer watcher or my own tozero (both available on SketchUcation’s plugin store). TIG’s has the advantage of monitoring what you are doing all the time and warning you if you are wandering into the criss-crossed layers morass.
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Thanks for this explanation, but I still don’t know how I am not seeing what you are seeing. Here is a screen shot of the Entity window and I don’t see Group shown anywhere on it.
This is from the original file, not the one you fixed.
My mistake, Component not Group (look at the top of the window). Same situation, as Groups and Components are very similar Entities.
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Okay, so I get it. The item was on the TEXT layer but the components were on the Wall layer. I don’t really understand how this can be, but I get how to fix it, so thank you!!
Generally something like that happens when your active layer is changed from Layer0 while you are drawing. Best bet is to keep Layer0 the active layer, then move groups/components to other layers after the geometry is created and grouped.
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I’ve also had problems with 3d text disappearing (sketchup make 2015). The text is part of a component visible in the top view and the component is in its own layer. I have several different components and it happens to all of them. Usually, all I need to do is rotate the view a bit and the text magically reappears. I can then change back to the top view and see the text, but yesterday, the text was completely gone from one of my components. I was forced to re-add it.