Yes, with a good engine support tool you can blow the engine cradle completely out of your way and then utilize the support tool to drop the engine and trans way down to facilitate removal.
The way they teach you to do it in Volvo school is to loosen the subframe bolts on the passenger side and to remove the ones on the driver's side and pull the subframe down as far as you can on the one side. This allows you to use the factory tool to slide in and around the subframe and pull the trans.
Next class I was in at Volvo school there were several techs there that said they were simply removing the subframe as it was not much more work and it allowed much more room to do what you need to do.
The big piece of foam idea I got from a Volkswagen/Volvo dealer tech that said they had been doing it like that on the front wheel drive VW's forever and it worked great.
The band strap I learned while working for BMW, boy did they do a boat load of V8 short blocks back then.
So I use a combination of the above techniques and because Volvo is really a small world and I know guys at all of the local dealers, those guys use whatever bits and pieces work for them.

Mark