PyCharm silently fails to create project?

Hello --- I have two copies of a certain project (it happens to be trimesh from github https://github.com/mikedh/trimesh). One copy is in my Documents directory, where I clone github repos by default, in general. Another copy is subordinate to a distant repo with a long directory path, where I can share my mods with team members. The problem is that I can only create a PyCharm project in the clone of the github repo. That means that I must develop in one directory, then manually copy changed files into the other directory. When I try to create a PyCharm project in the distant directory, PyCharm goes all the way through asking me for the directory and interpreter, asking whether I want the new project in a new window or in the same window (I choose "same"), whether I want to import existing files ("yes"), then nothing happens and there is nothing in the logs. I made sure that I "rm -rf .idea" from the copy before I try to create the new project in the copy directory. I made sure that I'm not trying to create two projects with the same name. 

I'd be grateful for advice.