An ARH file isn’t tied to one universal purpose, so the best way to identify it is by checking context; many ARH files come from Siemens ProTool—older industrial HMI software—where they act as compressed project packages for storing or backing up HMI work, making this likely if the file came from factory equipment, PLC/HMI technicians, or folders mentioning Siemens, ProTool, WinCC, STEP7, S7, or HMI, while in other cases ARH refers to an ArheoStratigraf project used in archaeology for documenting stratigraphy and building diagrams like a Harris Matrix, which fits if the file came from excavation records or folders labeled contexts, trench, stratigraphy, matrix, or layers.

To determine what your ARH file actually is, the simplest first step is to try opening it with 7-Zip or WinRAR because many ARH files act as archive containers; if it opens, you can inspect the extracted contents—project directories, configs, images, databases—which usually hints at a ProTool-style packaged project, whereas a failure to open often just means it’s in a proprietary format requiring ProTool or ArheoStratigraf, and a useful trick is renaming a copy to `.zip` or `.rar` to see whether it extracts, with the best opening strategy depending on your needs: if you only want assets, extraction may be enough, but proper viewing/editing requires the original program.

Because many ARH files are structured as multi-file project bundles, they’re often saved in compressed form, so checking them with 7-Zip or WinRAR is worthwhile even without knowing the program; if the archive opens, you’ll see internal folders containing configs, images, logs, or databases that reveal what created it, and you can extract assets immediately, while a failure to open usually means it’s a proprietary format, with a useful trick being to copy and rename the extension to `.zip` or `.rar` to see if it extracts, making this a quick, low-effort way to identify the ARH and possibly retrieve needed content.

If you cherished this report and you would like to receive extra data about ARH file description kindly take a look at the web site. An ARH file isn’t a fixed-format document because many developers reuse “.ARH” for unrelated purposes, so the extension alone tells you little; instead, the source matters—industrial automation work (Siemens/HMI/PLC) points toward a packaged project, while archaeological stratigraphy work points toward an ArheoStratigraf file—and checking how it behaves in tools like 7-Zip helps determine whether it’s an archive or a proprietary project.

What this means day-to-day is that “.ARH” doesn’t guarantee any specific format, so an ARH from automation circles might be a Siemens/ProTool package containing screens, tag sets, alarms, and configs, while an archaeology ARH might instead be an ArheoStratigraf project with stratigraphy and diagram structure, and even matching filenames can hide unrelated data, which is why checking its origin, nearby files, and behavior in 7-Zip is the safest method to determine if it’s an archive or a proprietary project needing the original software.

You can often identify an ARH file by looking at the *context it’s stored in*—neighboring filenames, folder themes, and domain clues—because the suffix alone doesn’t define the internal format; ARH files near automation-related items like Siemens, ProTool, WinCC, STEP7/S7, PLC, HMI, or engineering project versions are generally Siemens ProTool archives, while ARH files in archaeology directories referencing trench, context, stratigraphy, matrix, or layers and surrounded by site photos or context sheets usually belong to ArheoStratigraf, and testing with 7-Zip helps confirm whether it’s a container or a proprietary project.