ah perfect thanks vig and prof, I really should learn how max scripting works :P I used Jim's tools and tweaked his script with your bit of code, minus the $.pos = [0,0,0], works like a dream :D
Sounds like something that's easily scriptable. Jim Jagger wrote a script to move the pivot down to the lowest point in a mesh, its called Base Pivot, its part of his giant pack of scripts. http://www.jimjagger.com/Pages/Home/Index.htm Then if you want to move the object to the world zero point use $.pos = [0,0,0]
Ahh crap... I think you can get the script if you follow the links from the main page. If you don't want to bother heres the code he uses:for i in selection do (i.pivot = i.min) It doesn't center the pivot, but instead sets the piviot to XYZ 0 which is down in the left corner of the mesh... But Prof's method works for me…