Layered Human

Peel the body back,
layer by layer.

A free 3D anatomy atlas for your computer. Explore the body from superficial to deep, name what a section reveals, and study anatomy offline.

Choose your computer Download for Mac Download for Windows

Free · Apple silicon Mac (macOS 13 or later) or Windows
What to expect when installing

Right rectus femoris

Musculus rectus femoris

Extends the knee and flexes the hip.

System
Muscular
Region
Right thigh
Nerve
Femoral nerve

Atlas · TA2 2614 · Right side

Superficial to deep, one layer at a time

Drag the knob down the depth scale and superficial structures give way to deeper anatomy. Depth is measured against how thick the body is at each point, so the hand and the thigh are uncovered together. Want one layer on its own? Show only that slab.

See how a lesson uses it

Cut anywhere.
The cut names itself.

Section the body sagittally, coronally or transversely. Open labels to identify structures along the cut. Numbered markers connect to captions on side rails, using the same label controls as the rest of the atlas.

54%
Anterior · frontPosterior · back

    From the kidney to a podocyte

    40 interactive 3D models open in the same viewer, with the same controls and labels as the atlas. Step the kidney from the whole organ down to the podocytes. Explore the heart, its chambers and its vessels with the same selection tools.

    1. The kidney model: the whole organ
      KidneyThe whole organ
    2. The renal corpuscle: the glomerulus inside its capsule, with the tubules around it
      Renal corpuscleThe glomerulus in its capsule
    3. Podocytes wrapping a glomerular capillary with their foot processes
      PodocytesFoot processes on a capillary

    Kidney with the nephron

    Ren, nephron, podocytus

    Follow the kidney from the whole organ to the renal corpuscle and the podocytes around its capillaries. Stored teaching views bring each scale into focus, so you can rotate the model, identify its structures and see how the smaller parts fit into the organ.

    Models · 40 models · one viewer

    Read the film with the body beside it

    52 radiology cases bring real medical images and related 3D anatomy into the same workspace. Numbered labels connect the image to its anatomical reference.

    The atlas illustrates the anatomy; it is not a scan of that patient. The shape and extent of a finding in the model are illustrative.

      CT kidneys — bilateral renal calculi

      Coronal section · calculi in both kidneys

      Kristie Guite, Louis Hinshaw and Fred Lee · CC BY 3.0 · Wikimedia Commons. Coronal panel from the original comparison; cropped as in the app.

      Radiology · 52 cases

        Cervical spine

        Lateral X-ray · vertebrae and surrounding landmarks

        UC San Diego Health radiology staff · Public domain · Wikimedia Commons.

        Radiology · 52 cases

        Study the anatomy, step by step.

        Follow a guided lesson with the relevant anatomy beside the explanation. Move through the structures in sequence, then use the recall questions to check what you remember.

        In Hunt, nothing is labelled. Peel structures away one at a time and find the one you’re asked for, in three tries.

        Review missed questions and revisit the anatomy as you learn.

        Lesson previewCore

        The aortic arch and the great vessels

        The three parts of the thoracic aorta

        Recall before you reveal

        Show answer

          Tissue, slide and model together

          Explore 101 tissue topics with 368 micrographs and 83 diagrams. The models let you examine tissue in depth, from the gut wall and cardiac muscle to compact bone and the eye.

          Point to a marker or choose a label to name the tissue.

          H&E-stained transverse profiles of terminal ileal villi. Pale goblet cells interrupt the columnar epithelium around each villus; its lamina propria forms the core.

          Terminal ileum villi in section

          H&E · goblet cells and the villus core

          Mikael Häggström, M.D. · CC0 · Wikimedia Commons. Study labels are a separate overlay; the source image is unchanged.

          Histology · 101 tissue topics

          1. Cardiac muscle, in the same view shown in the app’s model catalog
            Cardiac muscle
          2. Compact bone, in the same view shown in the app’s model catalog
            Compact bone
          3. Female reproductive system, in the same view shown in the app’s model catalog
            Female reproductive system
          4. Eye, in the same view shown in the app’s model catalog
            Eye

          Ready when you are

          Free for Apple silicon Macs (macOS 13 or later) and Windows. The first time you open it, your computer may warn you. The app isn’t signed with a paid developer certificate, so your computer can’t check who made it. The code is public on GitHub. Here’s what to click.

          Layered Human runs on Windows PCs and Apple silicon Macs (macOS 13 or later). There is no iPhone, iPad, or Android version. Open layeredhuman.com on your computer to download it.

          Mac

          Apple silicon (M1 or newer), macOS 13 or later

          Download for Mac

          Free · downloads the app and offline anatomy library

          1. Open the disk image and double-click the installer.
          2. If macOS says it “cannot be opened”: System Settings → Privacy & Security → Open Anyway.
          3. It downloads and verifies the app files, installs Layered Human in Applications and opens it. Download size varies by release; if interrupted, run the installer again.

          Windows

          A small installer downloads the full app

          Download for Windows

          Free · downloads the app and offline anatomy library

          1. Open Install-Layered-Human-Windows.exe from your Downloads folder.
          2. If “Windows protected your PC” appears: More info, then Run anyway.
          3. Follow the installer to download and set up Layered Human.

          After installing. Your progress, quiz history and notes stay on your computer, separately from the application files. Find and back up your study files. Changed parts download in the background and open on your next launch. Some updates are large.

          Using Linux, or want to run it from source? Instructions on GitHub.

          What the atlas knows

          • 3,922 structures, from bones and ligaments to cranial nerves and internal organs
          • Bony and organ landmarks to locate and explore
          • Latin names and Terminologia Anatomica 2 references
          • Origins and insertions mapped on the bone
          • Muscle attachments, actions and innervation
          • 423 clinical correlations, searchable by sign or syndrome

          Questions

          Which computers can run Layered Human?

          Windows, and Apple silicon Macs (M1 or newer) running macOS 13 or later. Linux users can run it from source.

          Where are my notes and study progress saved?

          They stay on your computer. On Windows, paste %LOCALAPPDATA%\AnatomyExplorer\user into File Explorer’s address bar. On macOS, choose Finder → Go → Go to Folder, then enter ~/Library/Application Support/AnatomyExplorer/user. The folder contains your notes, lesson progress and quiz history. The folder name still uses the app’s previous name, Anatomy Explorer.

          How do I back up or move my study history?

          Save any open note and quit the app, then copy the user folder from the location above somewhere safe. To restore it, quit the app on the destination computer, rename its existing user folder to keep a safety copy, and put your backed-up folder in its place. Saved views and display preferences are stored separately.

          How do I return to an atlas setup later?

          Choose Saved views → Save current view and give it a name. Choose that name from Saved views to restore the setup. Manage saved views lets you find and organize saved setups.

          How do I install an update?

          Choose Updates → Check for updates…, then Check and download now. When the download is ready, choose Restart to apply, or close and reopen the app. Ordinary updates retain your notes and study history.

          Why does Windows or macOS show a warning?

          The app does not currently have a paid developer signing certificate. The installation instructions explain the prompts for each platform.

          What information helps with a bug report?

          Include your operating system, the version shown in the Updates dialog, and the steps that caused the problem. If an error log exists, attach errors.log from %LOCALAPPDATA%\AnatomyExplorer\logs on Windows, or ~/Library/Application Support/AnatomyExplorer/logs on macOS. Report a problem on GitHub.

          Free. Offline. Yours.

          Layered Human runs entirely on your computer. Your progress, quiz history and notes stay in your own user folder, and normal updates preserve them. Updates download in the background. The code is open source under the MIT licence.

          Read the code on GitHub

          Acknowledgements

          The 3D atlas is adapted from Z-Anatomy and BodyParts3D, shared under CC BY-SA. Terms follow Terminologia Anatomica 2. Radiology and histology images come from Wikimedia Commons contributors, and each one shows its author and licence. Layered Human is a study aid, not a medical device.

          Atlas
          Z-Anatomy, “The libre 3D atlas of anatomy”, CC BY-SA 4.0 (Gauthier Kervyn et al.)
          Models
          BodyParts3D, © The Database Center for Life Science (DBCLS), CC BY-SA 2.1 Japan
          Terms
          Terminologia Anatomica 2 (FIPAT). Descriptions: Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 3.0
          Images
          Wikimedia Commons contributors; each image shows its author, licence and source in the app. On this page: Kristie Guite, Louis Hinshaw and Fred Lee (CC BY 3.0), UC San Diego Health radiology staff (public domain), and Mikael Häggström (CC0). Source links appear with each image
          Code
          MIT, © 2026 Ethan Prince. Qt and PySide6 under LGPL-3.0