overwrite_duplicate not working with (use_current_library = True)

[userx14]

When using new_cell with the option overwrite_duplicate = True and use_current_library = True
an ValueError [GDSPY] Cell named xxx already present in library occurs.

I'm not sure if it is caused by improper usage, I do multiple calls of
gdspy.current_library.new_cell(name="testDupl", overwrite_duplicate=True).

I think this is caused because inside new_cell function the first operation is to instantiate a new cell:

gdspy/gdspy/library.py

Lines 2299 to 2328 in 5234778

	def new_cell(self, name, overwrite_duplicate=False, update_references=True):
	"""
	Create a new cell and add it to this library.
	Parameters
	----------
	name : string
	Name of the cell.
	overwrite_duplicate : bool
	If True, an existing cell with the same name in the library
	will be overwritten.
	update_references : bool
	If True, `CellReference` and `CellArray` instances from an
	overwritten cell are updated to the new one (used only when
	`overwrite_duplicate` is True).
	Returns
	-------
	out : `Cell`
	The created cell.
	Notes
	-----
	This is equivalent to:
	>>> cell = gdspy.Cell(name)
	>>> lib.add(cell, False, overwrite_duplicate, update_references)
	"""
	cell = Cell(name)
	self.add(cell, False, overwrite_duplicate, update_references)
	return cell

But inside the initializer of the new cell class the overwrite_duplicate is not passed to the current_library.add function.

gdspy/gdspy/library.py

Lines 104 to 115 in 5234778

	def __init__(self, name, exclude_from_current=False):
	self.name = name
	self.polygons = []
	self.paths = []
	self.labels = []
	self.references = []
	self._bb_valid = False
	self._bounding_box = None
	if use_current_library and not exclude_from_current:
	import gdspy
	gdspy.current_library.add(self, include_dependencies=False)

My workaround to fix this was a modifcation the new_cell function as follows:

def new_cell(self, name, overwrite_duplicate=False, update_references=True):
    if(overwrite_duplicate and use_current_library):
        cell = Cell(name, exclude_from_current=True)
    else:
        cell = Cell(name) 
    self.add(cell, False, overwrite_duplicate, update_references) 
    return cell 

Is this a bug or wrong usage?

[heitzmann]

It's a bug. When using current_library, calling new_cell on it is not the expected use case (since just creating a cell from the constructor achieves the same goal and seems simpler). The problem is that your solution won't work if new_cell is called from another library, because self != gdspy.currentl_library.