Here is a description of all of the input buttons for this box:
MAP is the image file. MODE is the mapping projection: 0 = planar in XY 1 = planar in YZ 2 = planar in XZ 3 = planar in UV 4 = cylindrical or spherical. REPU the number of repetitions, tiles, horizontally. REPV the number of repetitions, tiles, vertically. ALTU flip alternate tiles horizontally, butterfly? ALTV flip alternate tiles vertically, butterfly? UWRAP wrap the texture horizontally? VWRAP wrap the texture vertically? SWAP exchange the horizontal and vertical directions? MINU, MAXU control cropping of the map, left and right. MINV, MAXV control cropping of the map, bottom and top. XFORM a matrix for transforming the texture coordinates.The x against the outside of the button means these buttons cannot accept inputs. They are constant settings and as such cannot become procedually set variables. These inputs also cannot become arguments to the shader for the same reason. You will notice they are greyed out in the Argument Editor. The soft_color_2D box is an implimentation of a SoftImage TEXTURE2D SHADER, ShadeTree allows you to test the affect of the texture map in their shader, but the above settings will have to be transferred, once back in the SoftImage application.
The output, TAG is the pointer to this map.
This pointer may be passed to any box with a TAG input button. Such as one of three Variable->Textures boxes:
MaterialTex, DisplaceTex, EnvironTex;or to the textured_lens box under Shaders->Lens;
or to the out_textured box under Shaders->Output.