How can I set up PyCharm to launch from the Launcher?

PyCharm can create it's own launcher icon (but it's not created by default).

All you have to do is:

1. Start PyCharm.
2. From the Tools menu, select "Create Desktop Entry..."
3. Tick the corresponding box if you want the launcher for all users.
4. If you selected "Create entry for all users", you will be asked for your password.
5. A green message bubble should appear informing you that it was successful.
6. You should then be able to find PyCharm in the Unity Dash or pin it to the launcher.

Note: You may need a system restart before it appears.

The "purest" method, in my opinion, is to simply create a launcher in a text editor that looks about like this:

[Desktop Entry]
Version=1.0
Type=Application
Name=PyCharm
Icon=/opt/pycharm-2017.1.1/bin/pycharm.png
Exec="/opt/pycharm-2017.1.1/bin/pycharm.sh" %f
Comment=The Drive to Develop
Categories=Development;IDE;
Terminal=false
StartupWMClass=jetbrains-pycharm

I believe this one was created by JetBrains, but you can type your own. Then save it to /home/yourname/.local/share/applications/appname.desktop for a launcher tied to your own login, or to /usr/share/applications/appname.desktop if you want it to apply to other users of your system.

Obviously, once editing, you can modify the icon, etc. And you can transfer this skill to other apps or tasks.

I had the same problem after "Create Desktop Entry...". This is what solved my problem: Go to the bin folder of the PyCharm and add following line to the beginning of pycharm.sh script:

export JDK_HOME='your java home folder'

and save the file. Now, run the launcher entry from Unity.