An ARH file can refer to unrelated file types, 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 figure out the ARH type without guessing, the simplest technique is using 7-Zip or WinRAR, since some ARH files are container archives; if the tool opens it and reveals internal structure, you can extract and check for project folders, configs, images, or databases—often tied to Siemens/ProTool—while an inability to open it doesn’t imply corruption but rather that it’s a proprietary project format requiring the original application, and an additional trick is renaming a copied version to `.zip` or `.rar` to test whether it extracts, with the correct opening method depending on your purpose: extraction may be enough for asset recovery, but full project access needs the creating software.

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 `. Here's more info regarding easy ARH file viewer review the page. 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.

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.

In practice, ".ARH" describes the extension but not the data, because unrelated software may use the same extension for different purposes; automation-derived ARH files may be Siemens/ProTool HMI packages with screens, alarms, tags, and configs, while archaeology-derived ARH files may be ArheoStratigraf projects containing stratigraphy, context links, and diagram layouts, meaning files named similarly can differ completely, and proper identification depends on finding the source, checking adjacent files, and running neutral tests like 7-Zip to see if it opens as an archive or requires proprietary software.

You can usually identify what kind of ARH file you have by examining the *company it keeps*—the folder, nearby filenames, and the type of work it came from—because ".ARH" itself doesn’t define the format; when the ARH appears in industrial automation or HMI backup folders alongside terms like Siemens, ProTool, WinCC, STEP7/S7, PLC, HMI, tags, or alarms, it’s almost always the Siemens ProTool compressed project type, but when it’s found in archaeology folders labeled trench, context, stratigraphy, matrix, layers, or excavation and surrounded by dig photos, drawings, or context sheets, it’s more likely an ArheoStratigraf project, and if context still isn’t obvious, opening it with 7-Zip is a quick test—an archive-like structure suggests a packed project, while a "not an archive" message points toward a proprietary file requiring the original software.