Body force method (BFM) was originally proposed in 1967 as a general technique for the stress analysis of notch and crack problems. The concept of BFM is to express the stress fields of elastic problems by means of superposition of point force solutions. In principle, any problem of individual shape and boundary conditions is transformed into a problem of an infinite region without any holes, cracks or external boundary. BFM has provided a number of highly accurate solutions. Some of these have been inserted in technical documents or handbooks. In this paper, firstly, a short history of BFM is described. Then the fundamental principle of BFM is explained. As numerical examples, some useful solutions of 2D and 3D crack problems are shown.