Use custom texture multiple times with different settings

Question

I have made a woodgrain procedural texture and keep it in a blend file so it can be appended to materials in other projects. I am able to append the texture to a project and Add the node group to a material in a project. It has x,y,z inputs in order to align the grain with the object's geometry. All that works for a single use of the node group. I would like to use it for more than one object in the same scene but with different settings but unable to get it to work independently. I have unlinked materials for the objects but any adjustment to my texture carries over to all objects using the texture group. I could store several versions of the texture and append them all but that doesn't feel right. Is this a limitation I have to accept or have I got it wrong?

Edit. I have found that independent instances of the appended node group can be achieved by ungrouping each instance, dispensing with the input block and using the sliders inside the nodes instead.

Answer 1

When you say different settings, do you mean just different orientations and scale or different tweaks to colors and normals (height, roughness, etc)?

If it's just different scale and orientation, you can alter your UV mesh orientation and scale, without changing your texture's mapping coordinates.

If it's different tweaks to colors and normals, you should copy the texture, as any change will alter its appearance everywhere in the scene.