PyCharm internal data : files open in editors and Project interpreters.

I am trying to write a cookiecutter project for my initial Python projects - I use Pycharm, and I want to be able to set up Pycharm too - so that when I open Pycharm on the new directory it does the following :

• Starts with a number of files already open in the editor mode
• Starts with the default Interpreter set to a specific virtual env, and with the other virtual envs for the project known to Pycharm.

I believe the this data - the open files and the available local virtual envs are stored in the .idea directory in some form, but I have had a real problem identifying where.

Is that any information that I can use to implement these features - or even better a nice API that I can use to set this data without needing to hack XML from without cookiecutter templates.