An ARH file does not have one fixed meaning, so determining its purpose requires examining where it came from; frequently it’s linked to Siemens ProTool in industrial automation, where it’s a compressed HMI project package used for backups or transfers—likely if seen alongside Siemens or PLC-related terms—whereas in archaeological work an ARH file may be an ArheoStratigraf project capturing stratigraphy data and Harris Matrix diagrams, often found in folders related to contexts, trenches, layers, or site documentation.

To identify what type of ARH file you have, the simplest hands-on method is to try opening it with 7-Zip or WinRAR, because some ARH files are just container-style archives; if 7-Zip opens it and shows folders or files, you can extract them and look for clues like project structures, databases, images, or configs—often indicating a packaged project (commonly the Siemens/ProTool type), but if 7-Zip can’t open it, the ARH may still be valid yet proprietary, requiring the original software such as ProTool or ArheoStratigraf, and a helpful trick is copying the file and renaming it to `.zip` (or `.rar`) to see if it’s simply an archive under a different name, with extraction possible if it opens, while the correct opening method depends on your goal: if you only need assets and it extracts cleanly you may avoid using the original tool, but to view or edit the full project you’ll usually need the application that created it.

Because many ARH files are formatted as project archive packages, tools like 7-Zip and WinRAR are handy even when you don’t know the program yet; if they open, the internal files—configs, images, logs, databases—instantly reveal the file’s nature and let you extract assets, but if they can’t, the ARH may just be a proprietary project format, and renaming a copy to `.zip` or `.rar` can sometimes expose a normal archive underneath, making this quick test a simple, low-effort way to understand the ARH and extract anything useful.

Here is more about ARH file program review our own website. An ARH file isn’t defined by a single universal meaning because “.ARH” is a non-standard extension reused by different software makers, so two ARH files may be completely unrelated even though they share the same suffix; the real clue is the context—industrial automation environments (Siemens, HMI/PLC) often use ARH as a packed project file, while archaeology workflows use it for ArheoStratigraf data—and identifying it relies more on the source workflow, nearby files, and whether it opens like an archive in tools such as 7-Zip.

In effect, “.ARH” tells you the suffix but not the substance, because the extension can belong to unrelated programs; one ARH might be a Siemens/ProTool HMI project holding screens, tags, configurations, and alarms, while another from archaeology might be ArheoStratigraf data describing stratigraphy relationships and diagrams, so identical-looking filenames can still differ entirely, and the most reliable identification comes from tracing its source and using tools like 7-Zip to see whether it behaves like an archive or needs its original software.

You can often figure out an ARH file’s identity by looking at the *surrounding context*—its folder, adjacent files, and the work environment—because the extension itself doesn’t specify the format; ARH files found in machine/HMI backups with keywords like Siemens, ProTool, WinCC, STEP7/S7, PLC, panel, or alarms are usually Siemens ProTool packages, while ARH files in archaeology directories marked trench, context, stratigraphy, layers, matrix, or site and accompanied by drawings, photos, or spreadsheets generally indicate ArheoStratigraf projects, and if uncertain, testing with 7-Zip will show whether it’s an extractable archive or a proprietary file.