If a node is defined as a circle and you want to use anchors (west and east) from the node to draw an arc around the node, how do you ensure that the arc is anchored about the centre (red line in figure below; see 'using coordinates' in the MWE below) of the circumference of the circle, rather than at the left edge (blue line in figure below; see 'using anchors' in the MWE below).
That is, if you use anchors, the black output is produced, but if you use coordinates, the red output is produced.
I appreciate that this is a subtle point, but I would like to properly understand how node anchors work!
Why not do it simply in terms of coordinates? This is part of a much larger figure where I would ideally like to define drawings in terms of node anchors for simplicity.
MWE:
\documentclass[12pt,tikz]{standalone}
\usepackage{tikz}
\begin{document}
\begin{tikzpicture}
%The node:
\node[circle,draw=black, fill = white, inner sep=0pt,minimum size=1.5cm] (pulley) at (0,0) {};
%Using anchors:
\draw[thick,blue] (pulley.west) arc (180:0:0.75);
%Using coordinates (ideally it should like this output):
\draw[thick,red] (-0.75,0) arc (180:0:0.75);
\end{tikzpicture}
\end{document}