The vertical members of timbers are posts, struts, and studs. Struts can also be inclined and are used in the roof system as a secondary support for rafters. Studs are secondary posts primarily used as nailers or decorations. Girts are the horizontal members in bents or walls that span between major posts. Sills support the post bottoms at ground level, while plates support rafters, and girders are major beams that run between sills.
Inclined members are generally rafters or braces.
Function and location further refine the identification of most pieces in the frame. Therefore there are bent girts and connecting girts, roof purlins and wall purlins, principal rafters and common rafters. The timbers within the walls, floor, roof and bents interact to form a self-supporting structural unit. This unit consists of many hundreds of pieces each absorbing and transferring a part of the building load. The accumulating loads are collected and passed on through the frame from the minor members to the larger timbers, until eventually the principal posts receive them.