Issue
You want to know what the system\dsprojectinfo file is used for, and whether your can use it to specify project settings.
Solution
The presence of a dsprojectinfo file in the system folder marks a valid project location.

Softimage doesn’t use what’s in the file. After the file is created (when the project is created), the only thing Softimage does is update the project path, which is stored in the file, along with some other project info like the project name. But Softimage doesn’t use the path, that’s why you can copy an existing system folder to a new location to create a new project.

Tip To create a minimal project location, you can simply copy the system folder from an existing project. You can then save the scene in that location (you don’t even have to create a Scenes subfolder).

Originally published as a KB article. Reposting here in case the KB article is wiped at some point.