Siemens File Types

Working with a new facility and I have never done any Siemens work and trying to find what their old tech left behind.

What file extensions should I be searching for for Siemens PLC’s and stand alone HMI’s?

Also they have abb drives and have drive composer software installed.

On the techs laptop their is a lot of Siemens software installed but under the “automation license manager” it lists simatic step 7 basic version 16, wincc comfort version 16, step 7 version 5.6

What is the difference between step 7 and step 7 basic and why are they both installed?

Says license type is unlimited and validity unlimited and number of license 1

Does this mean this machine is fully licensed with a full version of the software that can edit anything in the plc program?

I am used to Rockwell and all their different editions like service edition and enterprise edition

Well Step 7 Basic is for the later controllers S7 1200 series, the Step7 V5.6 version is for the older controllers but I believe it can program all the 300/400 series (these are effectively been superseded). The older 300/400 series have limited functionality using Basic version i.e. cannot compile & download so use the 5.6 version, this is an upgrade from the original version 5.xx to allow it to run in Win7. The HMI software is for the comfort range of HMI's, it sounds like you have all you probably need. It makes sense to find if all the PLC's & HMI's have backups on the PC or archived on a disk somewhere, do comparisons on all your PLC's and if not upload a copy if possible so you have backups, however, without the source files you will not have any comments.
One other thing, often disgruntled employees will put passwords on the PLC's or source code to stop others accessing them, check on the PC to see if there are any lists of passwords.
The file extensions for Step 7 are S7P but the directory will contain other extensions. I believe that WinCC extensions are PDZ.

the two V16's, WinCC Comfort and Step 7 basic, are both part of TIA Portal. One package with all the different

V16 TIA projects end in ".ap16" (automation project v16), but projects could be from older versions: v15 would be .ap15, etc. Note the actual project has a whole folder structure; the .ap16 file is just sort of an identifier for the whole thing in the main project directory. Note that older projects would need to be migrated to V16 to be used, and changes made in V16 CANNOT be migrated back to the older version.

Project archives would be ".zap16" or whatever version. This is a feature to automatically zip/unzip the whole folder structure, very useful for backups or sending a project to someone else.

For the Step 7 v5.6 (part of Simatic Manager) you need to look for .s7p, as parky said, but, again, the actual project is the whole folder structure. Project backups/archives will typically be in a zip format. These are pretty flexible about install version, you won't need to worry about migrating older projects.

Many engineers leave the projects all saved in the default directory. Step 7 v5.6: C:\Program Files (x86)\Siemens\Step7\s7proj
TIA Portal: User's home directory\Documents\Automation

The entire thread has me worried for Tim's site.
How can it be possible to not know where the backups are stored ??

If your company doesnt already have a regimen of storing everything that pertains to the machines or projects to a server, then setting that up should be your priority no 1.
With everything, I mean everything. PLC and HMI programs, VFD configurations, network configurations, schematics, mech drawings, manuals, parts lists, risk assesments, safety instructions, safety checklists, .....
And all of these source codes and documents should have version control as well.
Dont underestimate the safety parts. If there is an accident and you are somehow involved you can get sued, and if found negligent you can get fined or go to jail.