The "ART and AI-based tools" documentation page is Linux-centric

[patrakov]

The page https://artraweditor.github.io/AItools contains some shell scripts that run AI tools. These scripts are not applicable on Windows, yet the functionality they provide is highly desirable on any platform.

I would like to contribute the instruction for using AI masks on Windows.

---

The SMART tool that the guide mentions has pre-built portable releases for Windows (x64). Download release v0.2, which, at the time of this writing, is the latest version:

https://github.com/artraweditor/SMART/releases/download/0.2/SMART-0.2-win64-portable.7z

Extract it under %LOCALAPPDATA%. That is, press Win+R, type "%LOCALAPPDATA%" in the address bar (with the surrounding quotes), press Enter, and then extract the archive into the folder that opens.

Navigate to the resulting SMART-0.2-win64-portable folder. Download one of the SAM 2 model checkpoints from https://github.com/facebookresearch/sam2?tab=readme-ov-file#download-checkpoints and put it in the models subdirectory.

Then run the SMART.exe program. It will create a configuration file, artpixls-SMART.json, in %LOCALAPPDATA%. Edit it using Notepad and adjust the "model" value to match the model you downloaded. For example:

  "model": "sam2.1_hiera_base_plus.pt",

Check that the "device" value is set to "cpu".

Then go to the "%LOCALAPPDATA%\ART" folder. Create the usercommands subfolder if it doesn't exist. Then, place two files there:

smart_masking.ps1:

# --- USER SETTINGS ----------------------------------------------------------

# Automatic ART-cli discovery
$ArtRoot = "C:\Program Files\ART"

# Automatic SMART portable discovery under %LOCALAPPDATA%
$SmartRoot = $env:LOCALAPPDATA

# -----------------------------------------------------------------------------


# Function: show an error dialog
function Show-ErrorBox($Message, $Title = "SMART Error") {
    Add-Type -AssemblyName PresentationFramework
    [System.Windows.MessageBox]::Show($Message, $Title, 'OK', 'Error') | Out-Null
}

# ------------------- Locate ART-cli (newest version) ------------------------

$ArtDir = Get-ChildItem -Path $ArtRoot -Directory |
          Where-Object { $_.Name -match '^\d+\.\d+\.\d+$' } |
          Sort-Object { [version]$_.Name } -Descending |
          Select-Object -First 1

if (-not $ArtDir) {
    Show-ErrorBox "Could not find any ART installation in:`n$ArtRoot"
    exit 1
}

$ArtCli = Join-Path $ArtDir.FullName "art-cli.exe"

if (-not (Test-Path $ArtCli)) {
    Show-ErrorBox "ART-cli was not found at:`n$ArtCli"
    exit 1
}

# ------------------- Locate SMART portable (newest version) -----------------

$SmartDir = Get-ChildItem -Path $SmartRoot -Directory |
            Where-Object { $_.Name -match '^SMART-\d+(\.\d+)*-win64-portable$' } |
            Sort-Object {
                # Extract version number from folder name
                [version]($_.Name -replace '^SMART-','' -replace '-win64-portable$','')
            } -Descending |
            Select-Object -First 1

if (-not $SmartDir) {
    Show-ErrorBox "Could not find any SMART portable installation in:`n$SmartRoot"
    exit 1
}

$SmartExe = Join-Path $SmartDir.FullName "SMART.exe"

if (-not (Test-Path $SmartExe)) {
    Show-ErrorBox "SMART.exe was not found in:`n$($SmartDir.FullName)"
    exit 1
}

# ------------------- Validate input RAW file --------------------------------
if ($args.Count -eq 0) {
    Show-ErrorBox "No input file received from ART."
    exit 1
}

$InputFile = $args[0]

if (-not (Test-Path $InputFile)) {
    Show-ErrorBox "Input file does not exist:`n$InputFile"
    exit 1
}

# ------------------- Create a temporary directory ---------------------------

$TempDir = New-Item -ItemType Directory -Path ([System.IO.Path]::GetTempPath()) -Name ("ART_SMART_" + [System.Guid]::NewGuid().ToString()) -Force
$Profile = Join-Path $TempDir "p1.arp"
$OutputFile = Join-Path $TempDir "out.jpg"
$ErrorLog = Join-Path $TempDir "error.txt"

# ------------------- Write minimal ARP profile ------------------------------

@"
[Version]
Version=1037

[Crop]
Enabled=false
"@ | Out-File -Encoding ascii $Profile

# ------------------- Run ART-cli -------------------------------------------

# Remove the "-f" if you want the SMART tool to work on the source-resolution image instead of a downscaled version.
# This is slow but keeps mask edge artifacts to the minimum possible.
$ArtArgs = @(
    "-f"
    "-d"
    "-s"
    "-p", $Profile
    "-Y"
    "-j"
    "-o", $OutputFile
    "-c", $InputFile
)

& $ArtCli @ArtArgs 2> $ErrorLog

# ------------------- Check for errors ---------------------------------------

if (-not (Test-Path $OutputFile)) {

    $ErrMsg = ""
    if (Test-Path $ErrorLog) {
        $ErrMsg = Get-Content $ErrorLog -Raw
    }

    if ([string]::IsNullOrWhiteSpace($ErrMsg)) {
        $ErrMsg = "ART-cli did not produce output, but no error message was available."
    }

    Show-ErrorBox $ErrMsg
    Remove-Item -Recurse -Force $TempDir
    exit 1
}

# ------------------- Rename to <raw>_SMART*.jpg -----------------------------

$Base = [System.IO.Path]::GetFileNameWithoutExtension($InputFile)
$Dir  = Split-Path $InputFile -Parent
$Target = Join-Path $Dir "${Base}_SMART.jpg"

$i = 1
while (Test-Path $Target) {
    $Target = Join-Path $Dir ("${Base}_SMART-$i.jpg")
    $i++
}

Move-Item -Force $OutputFile $Target

# ------------------- Call SMART.exe -----------------------------------------

Start-Process -FilePath $SmartExe -ArgumentList "`"$Target`""

# ------------------- Cleanup -------------------------------------------------

Remove-Item -Recurse -Force $TempDir
exit 0

(DISCLOSURE: The script above was generated using ChatGPT v5.1 as an idiomatic translation of the idea in the existing Linux shell script, with added version auto-discovery, and then edited manually until it worked. I certify that I reviewed the script manually before pasting it into this issue.)

smart_masking.txt:

[ART UserCommand]
Label=AI masking (SMART)
Command=powershell.exe -NoProfile -NoExit -ExecutionPolicy Bypass -File .\\smart_masking.ps1

[agriggio]

Hi,
thanks for the contribution! I tested it quickly and it seems to work fine. I'd like to add this to the webpage, but with proper credit of course. What should I use for that? Can I share your real name, should I use your github id instead, or something else?

Best

[patrakov]

I don't care about the exact form of the attribution. Sharing the GitHub handle and the real name is OK. Try to find other places in the docs where you credit contributors, and be consistent with that style.

And of course, feel free to edit the suggested text to fit the page better, and provide files as files, not as something to copy-paste.

[topoldo]

I have a problem with these scripts.
I installed ART in:
C:\Program Files\ART
NOT using the version number subdir (ie 1.26.1 or whatever).
In these conditions when I try to launch the "AI masking (SMART)" user command, then it reports that it cannot find ART:

I suspect this is because the script doesn't take into account the possibility of this kind of installation.
Script thinks that ART could be installed only in:
C:\Program Files\ART\n.nn.n
where n.nn.n is whichever version number of ART.

Beside, I did not arrived to test the part of the script which manages smart.exe execution, but I suspect that also in this case SMART prg location is limited to:
*... %APPDATALOCAL%\SMART-0.2-win64-portable*
directory.
If I want to set the content of the package to a dir named for example:
*... %APPDATALOCAL%\SMART*
then the script doesn't recognize this as a valid path for finding and running smart.exe.
If this is the case it should be specified in a note.

Anyway, regarding to the ART location, the possibility of its installation in:
C:\Program Files\ART
should be taken into account by the script.

Am I correct or did I miss something?

Regards,
Topoldo

[patrakov]

Yes, this is a known limitation: only default installation paths are supported.

[patrakov]

Let me provide more context.

In the existing script for Linux, locations of the tools to use were hard-coded and concentrated in the top section of the shell script as simple assignments of static strings that the user was expected to change. This worked across upgrades, as the paths were not version-dependent. On Windows, however, the default install paths include a version number, so I added auto-detection to pick the highest installed version in the default location to avoid breaking on upgrades.

That change had an unintended side effect: it made it less obvious how to override the paths for non-standard installations. Typically, users expect only simple string assignments at the top of a script to be user-configurable, and the version-finding block of code violated this expectation. So now I need to solve both the original "be robust to version upgrades" problem and the new usability requirement.

Proposal: At the top, let me add some variables that allow users to hard-code their tool location. If they are set to anything other than "auto", do not run the search for the highest-versioned tools in their default location.

@topoldo would this work for you?

[topoldo]

@topoldo would this work for you?

I think this solution is OK because it is more flexible.
In the description of the script (for example in a readme.txt file) or in a comment inside the script itself, you can warn potential user that, depending on the ART main program location, one should decide if (s)he wants to configure the non-standard path both for ART. IMHO this should work also for SMART, including the possibility of an installation of SMART in a location different from %APPDATALOCAL%, for example in C:\Program Files\SMART.

Regards,
Topoldo

[agriggio]

I agree this looks like a good solution