Yes Derek, I meant the so called tension braces that go from the upper third of the post to the sill plate. They are just as futile in tension as knee brace so perhaps the timber framing community needs to come up with a new name. Do you really not peg any of your braces, even your main tie beam -post knee braces? As far as windows and doors getting in between the frame's strength and its architecture, I would much rather sacrifice the window placement in exchange for a more dominating frame, cant we find another place to put a window with these wonderful spatious timber frames we build. Besides I think people are a little window crazy these days ,many people having almost complete walls of windows(kind of excessive). That is just my opinion though and we all know how useless they often are. tb
