TIA Portal V13 Archiving: Comparing ZAP13, ZIP, and 7-Zip Formats

Overview

Archiving a TIA Portal V13 project is the single most important workflow step you can take before a controller download, a hardware swap, or an HMI revision push. The V13 release reintroduced archive functionality that had been present in STEP 7 V5.x but was missing from earlier TIA Portal releases, and it added a built-in, drop-down File Type selector that lets the engineer choose between *.zap13, *.ap13, *.zip, and a non-compressed "minimized" form. The decision affects file size, what gets included, and how the archive must be re-opened on another workstation.

This reference covers the three compression paths (Siemens built-in .zap13, generic .zip, and the freeware 7-Zip utility), the relative compression ratios recorded on a representative V13 project, the retrieval workflow, and the practical corner cases that surface on site (corruption recovery, off-line sharing, version cross-grade, and 3rd-party extraction).

The compression values below are taken from a single controlled benchmark on a 6.50 MB reference project. Treat them as relative, not absolute; your project's HMI image pool, WinCC flexible runtime files, and PLC library references will dominate the result.

Archive File Types Compared

Reading the table: .zap13 and .zip differ by less than 1 % in size, but .zap13 strips the auto-generated files (the HMI *.wivcc runtime cache, compile logs, and a few other transient artefacts) before zipping. .zip keeps them. If you then re-archive the resulting .zip with 7-Zip using default Ultra LZMA2 settings, you recover an additional ~9 percentage points of compression because LZMA2 exploits redundancy that the legacy Deflate algorithm leaves on the table.

How ZAP13 Differs from a Plain ZIP

Internally, a .zap13 is a standard PKZIP-compatible container with a renamed extension. Three structural differences matter in practice:

1. Auto-generated cache files are excluded. WinCC Comfort/Advanced and WinCC Professional write large intermediate files into the project directory while you edit (image compile cache, faceplate cache, script intermediate files, the *.wivcc runtime image, and similar). The TIA Portal archiver recognizes these by extension/folder and removes them before compression. A plain .zip keeps them.
2. Folder layout is preserved. When you retrieve, TIA re-creates the same directory tree so library references, multi-language text DBs, and device proxies resolve cleanly.
3. The extension is cosmetic. Renaming project.zap13 to project.zip allows any ZIP utility to open it. The reverse rename is equally valid for TIA Portal's Retrieve dialog.

Because the contents are normal PKZIP, 7-Zip (which understands the Deflate algorithm that TIA uses) can extract .zap13 directly. This is the route to take when you need to pull a single file out of an archive without launching TIA Portal.

Prerequisites

• TIA Portal V13 (any edition) — Basic, Comfort, Professional, or the higher TIA Portal Engineering Framework. The archiving dialog exists in all of them; the file type options are identical.
• Project state: closed cleanly. The Project View must not show the project as "modified." If it does, save once before archiving so the on-disk representation matches the in-memory model.
• Free disk space: at least 2x the project size in the archive target directory (TIA writes a temporary, then renames).
• Permissions: read/write on the archive destination; read on the source project folder.
• Optional — 7-Zip for further compression or for extracting .zap13 on a workstation without TIA Portal.

Creating a ZAP13 Archive — Step-by-Step

1. Open TIA Portal V13. Switch to the Project View (button bottom-left of the Portal View, or via the menu View > Project View).
2. Open the project you want to archive.
3. From the menu bar, select Project > Archive. The Archive dialog opens.
4. In the dialog, set the File Type drop-down to TIA Portal project archive (*.zap13). This is the built-in compressed format with auto-generated files stripped.
5. Choose the destination path. Use a dedicated \archives\<project>\<YYYY-MM-DD>\ folder structure so retrieval is mechanical.
6. Optionally, enter a comment in the Comment field. TIA embeds this in the archive metadata; it surfaces again on Retrieve.
7. Click Archive. TIA writes a temporary, then renames it to <projectname>.zap13.
8. Verify the resulting file exists, is non-zero size, and matches your expectation of the compression ratio (typically 25–35 % of the original project size for PLC-heavy projects, higher for HMI-heavy projects with lots of images).

Creating a "Tia Portal Project Minimized" Archive (No Compression)

There is a fourth File Type option in the V13 archive dialog: Tia Portal project minimized (*.ap13). This option is often missed because the extension .ap13 looks like a normal project file, but it is actually a stripped-down, non-compressed archive. It performs the same auto-generated file removal as .zap13, but writes the result as a regular project folder hierarchy (or a single .ap13 container depending on selection) without any zipping step.

Use it when:

• You intend to retrieve the project, edit it, and re-archive repeatedly during a long change window (saves the compress/decompress CPU cost on each iteration).
• You are migrating to a newer TIA Portal version and want the receiving installation to do its own auto-generated cache rebuild cleanly.
• Disk space is plentiful but CPU is constrained (older laptops, virtual machines on under-provisioned hosts).

Retrieving / Opening a ZAP13 Archive

1. Open TIA Portal V13.
2. Switch to Project View (mandatory — the Portal View's "Open project" tile does not always surface the Retrieve flow).
3. From the menu, select Project > Retrieve.
4. In the file dialog, change the filter to Project archives (*.zap13) (or All files (*.*) if you renamed the file to .zip).
5. Select the archive and click Open.
6. TIA prompts for a target directory. Note this directory — the project is unpacked to a normal folder structure here, not kept inside the archive.
7. Confirm. TIA decompresses, re-creates the directory tree, and the project opens ready to compile.

Extracting ZAP13 with 7-Zip (External Extraction)

Use this path when you need a single file out of an archive without starting TIA Portal, or when you need to inspect the archive on a workstation that does not have TIA installed (for example, a customer's IT laptop where you only need to confirm a tag name).

1. Install 7-Zip (free, GPL/LGPL).
2. Right-click the .zap13 file in Windows Explorer.
3. Choose 7-Zip > Extract Here or 7-Zip > Extract to <foldername>\.
4. 7-Zip prompts for no password (TIA Portal archives are unencrypted by default) and writes the project tree to disk.
5. Optionally, re-archive the result with 7-Zip for further compression (LZMA2 / Ultra), saving roughly an additional 9 percentage points versus .zap13 alone, as the benchmark above shows.

7-Zip is also capable of opening the older *.rss archives that legacy STEP 7 V5.5 used, which is occasionally useful when migrating a long-retired project.

Double-Compression Workflow (Smallest Possible Archive)

If bandwidth or off-line media size is the primary constraint, run the archive through 7-Zip after TIA produces it:

1. TIA Portal > Project > Archive > *.zap13.
2. 7-Zip > Add to archive > Format: 7z, Compression level: Ultra, Method: LZMA2, Dictionary size: 64 MB (or larger on workstation-class hardware), Solid block size: Solid.
3. Store the resulting .7z on the slow link.

On the receiving end, the recipient needs 7-Zip to extract the .7z, then TIA Portal to Retrieve the inner .zap13. The nested format is the trade-off for the smaller upload.

Archive Workflow Best Practices

• Versioned folders beat single archives. Never overwrite yesterday's archive. The naming convention <project>_v<major>.<minor>_<YYYY-MM-DD>.zap13 is unambiguous and sorts chronologically.
• Archive before and after a controller upload. The upload modifies the project (online snapshots, hardware configuration deltas). If the upload introduces a regression, you need a pre-upload archive to compare against.
• Archive before Windows Update. A forced reboot in the middle of an unsaved edit is the single most common cause of project corruption in the field.
• Verify on a second workstation periodically. Pick a fresh TIA V13 install (or a VM) and Retrieve your last archive once a quarter. You will discover archive corruption long before you need the archive to actually save you.
• Keep at least one off-machine copy. USB drive, network share, or cloud sync (OneDrive for Business / SharePoint is acceptable for non-ITAR projects; check with your customer's data-handling rules). Engineering workstations fail; their drives fail with them.
• Tag archives with the controller firmware version. Add a one-line comment in the archive dialog's Comment field that records the S7-1200 / S7-1500 / ET 200sp firmware the project was last downloaded to. Mismatched firmware is a top-three cause of unexpected compile errors on retrieval.

Cross-Version Compatibility and Migration

A V13 archive opens cleanly in V13 SP1, V13 SP2, and in V14 with the standard upgrade prompt. Opening a .zap13 created in V13 in TIA Portal V11 or V12 will fail with a version-incompatible error — the project file format was upgraded and is not backward-readable. The reverse direction (V12 archive into V13) does work; V13 contains a compatibility shim that imports V12 archives and performs the in-place upgrade.

For migrations across more than one major version (for example, V11 → V16), perform the upgrade stepwise — V11 to V13, save, close, V13 to V15, save, close, V15 to V16 — rather than skipping versions. TIA Portal performs a project migration that updates internal references and library bindings; jumping versions can leave stale references that the IDE will not always auto-fix.

When migrating, prefer the *.zap13 archive as the transfer vehicle rather than copying the raw project folder. The archive normalizes auto-generated files and reduces the chance of a left-behind *.wivcc triggering a false "project modified" state on first open.

Troubleshooting Archive Issues

Field-Proven Caveats

• Sharing archives with off-site colleagues. When the WAN link is poor, an SMTP relay that drops attachments above 10 MB will defeat the purpose. The 7-Zip wrapped .zap13 shrinks a typical PLC project (under 2 MB after archiving) well below the threshold, but an HMI-heavy project with hundreds of MB of original assets may need to be split using 7-Zip's "Split to volumes" option.
• Engineering laptop theft or loss. Archives are the recovery path. If the laptop is encrypted with BitLocker and you trust the recovery key escrow, the archives on the encrypted drive are recoverable. If the laptop is unencrypted and lost in transit, the archives are an attacker-attractive target — consider adding a .zip-with-password step (7-Zip supports AES-256) for off-machine copies. TIA's own archive format does not encrypt.
• Corrupt archive recovery. If .zap13 is corrupt (truncated transfer, disk failure mid-write), 7-Zip will usually still extract the majority of the files because each member is independently compressed. You will lose only the last member or two. A native Windows ZIP tool tends to give up on the first error. Prefer 7-Zip for disaster-recovery extractions.
• Auto-archive before every TIA Portal upgrade. TIA Portal's own upgrade process archives your project as part of its workflow, but the resulting archive is stored in a temp directory the installer chooses. Do not rely on it. Make your own named archive first.

Verification Checklist After Archive / Retrieve

1. Archive file exists at the target path with non-zero size.
2. File size is in the expected ballpark (25–35 % of the project folder size for a typical PLC project; lower for HMI-heavy projects).
3. Archive opens in TIA Portal without warnings.
4. If shared, the recipient opens the archive without version mismatch.
5. After Retrieve, the project compiles cleanly on the receiving workstation.
6. Controller online comparison (TIA Portal: Online > Compare offline/online) shows the expected delta.

FAQ