The recent release of PyCharm is available in the institute's network (Community edition).

PyCharm stores its cache files in the ~/.PyCharmVERSION folder in your directory. The size of this folder grows with the amount of program usage. Please run Invalidate Caches and Restart in the File menu regularly (recommended on a weekly basis) to help keeping the disk usage on the server and backup hard disk low.

You will not loose data by invalidating the caches. Additionally you can safely delete configuration folders of old versions of PyCharm.

In order to create a Virtual Python Environment in your home folder click on Settings, then Configure and you will find yourself in the Settings Dialogue of PyCharm.

Click on Project Interpreter, then on the gear icon and on Create Virtual… . Enter the name of your virtual environment and the location where it should be stored. Select the Python version and confirm.

You have successfully created your virtual environment. You can also use this outside PyCharm.

You can use PyCharm for managing (installation, update, deinstallation) the installed python modules in your virtual environment. You can also use PIP as described in Virtual Python Environment.

You can activate the virtual environment in any terminal by typing

source <Path-to-VEnv>/bin/activate