You can still do it in Max 9. Make copies of all the pieces, attach them all together, UV it, detach them, copy the UVs from each piece to its original. You could also try this script. http://www.scriptspot.com/3ds-max/multi-objects-unwrap
I have a script i use which snapshots seperate meshes onto one wireframe layout. Its not ideal but it helps save time (for me at least) If you want I can probably make it available to you. (if you can get max '08 that would probably serve you better though)
funshark & Ged, the way I read it BigJon needs to UV a bunch of separate objects into a single UV sheet (1 bitmap) but he needs to keep the original pivot orientations of the separate objects. Attaching kills the pivots. Max 2008 or 2009 would be the fastest and least painful way to do it, though the script might float…
I tried that script, but it turns all the seperate objects into one big object. So they lose their orientation/pivot point so i would have to detach them and re-pivot them all individually as well. Plus the whole copy/past UVW maps thing didn't work for me. I've done it now, i essentially followed Sage's advice. It was a…