I teach design at the high school level in Canada; we have access to Inventor, ArtCAM, and Chief Architect: what types of 3D models does it import? (STL, IGES, IPT, 3DDXF … ?) I am considering jumping into the 3D printer world with a TAZ …
spadzia, unless you need to edit existing STL models, you really don’t need to import them. I’m a fan of both Inventor and SolidWorks - I’ve not used the others you listed.
You’ll be VERY satisfied with a TAZ. When I got mine set up, I had to make a tiny adjustment to the Z axis end-stop screw and that was it! No calibration or anything. Prints fantastically. I’ll be giving it a work out today I think. 
g.
Geneb: ArtCAM is 3D artistic CAM software that produces GCode for a CNC mill - can export to stl, obj and 3DPDF …; Chief is 3D home design - I can create 3dDXF’s and import into ArtCAM and create models from it … glad to hear the TAZ works well.
Autodesk has an educational program that allows free access for educational purposes only to AutoCAD, Autodesk inventor, amongst others. I don’t know if it is available in Canada. http://students.autodesk.com/?nd=download_center Audotdesk Inventor in particular has a direct stl import module http://apps.exchange.autodesk.com/INVNTOR/en/Home
Actually the TAZ does not use any 3D models, it only runs G-code. The slicing programs (and there are several) use STL files almost exclusively to create the G-code for the TAZ.
Since the Slicing programs (like Slic3r) are open source you can already download them and try them out without even getting the TAZ to make sure it works with the other programs you have…but I am sure it will.
I really need to get the Taz, seems like I am missing out. 
If you’re creating your own solid models you’ll want to save them as STL files, then load the stl file into the slicing program of choice to create your gcode.